By  RICHARD  HARDING  DAVIS 


UC-NRLF 


SB    112    t.71 


7)  *>  / 


/  cannot  tell  you  how  much  I  have  to  thank  you  for. 


IN  THE  FOG 

BY 

Richard  Harding  Davis 

u 

ILLUSTRATED    BY 

THOMAS    MITCHELL   PEIRCE 
&  F.  D.   STEELE 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS  PUBLISHERS 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 


Copyright,  ipoi,  by 
ROBERT  HOWARD  RUSSELL 

All  rights  reserved 

Entered  at  the  Library  of  Congress,  Washington,  U.  S.  A. 
Entered  rt  Sjte'tionei?'  f  i all,  London..  England 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 

B-N 


TO 

Bruce  and  Nancy  Clark 


95242-2 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


"  I  cannot  tell  you  how  much  I  have  to  thank 
you  for."  THOMAS  MITCHELL  PEIRCE. 

The  four  strangers  at  supper  were  seated 

together.  FREDERIC  DORR  STEELK. 

The  men  around  the  table  turned  and  glanced 
toward  the  gentleman  in  front  of  the  fire 
place.  FREDERIC  DORR  STEELB. 

"  I  would  tumble  his  unconscious  form  into  a 
hansom  cab,  and  hold  him  prisoner  until 
daylight."  FREDERIC  DORR  STKELE. 

"  My  name,"  he  said,  "  is  Sears." 

THOMAS  MITCHELL  PEIRCB. 

"  A  square  of  light  suddenly  opened  in  the 
night,  and  in  it  I  saw  a  young  gentleman  in 
evening  dress."  THOMAS  MITCHELL  PEIRCE. 

"  At  my  feet  was  the  body  of  a  beautiful  wo 
man,  lying  at  full  length  upon  the  floor." 

THOMAS  MITCHELL  PEIRCE. 

The  Princess  Zichy.  THOMAS  MITCHELL  PEIRCE. 

"  This  gave  the  Princess  Zichy  the  chance  she 
wanted  to  rob  me."  THOMAS  MITCHELL  PKIRCE. 

7 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

"She  knew  she   would  be  twenty  thousand 
pounds  richer."  FREDERIC  DORR  STEELE. 

"I  rushed  across  the  room   and   threw  out 
everything  on  the  bed."  FREDERIC  DORR  STEELS. 

"  I  threw  everything  in  the  dressing-case  out 
on  the  floor."  THOMAS  MITCHELL  PEIRCE. 

"  We  found  him  propped  up  in  bed  with  his 
head  bound  in  a  bandage."          FREDERIC  DORR  STEELE. 

"  In  the  drawing-room  we  found  the  body  of 
the  Princess  Zichy."  FREDERIC  DORR  STI 


" '  Entreating  Chetney  not  to  leave  her.' " 

THOMAS  MITCHELL  PEIRCE. 

**  What  was  the  object  of  your  plot  ?  " 

FREDERIC  DORR  STKBLK. 


IN    THE    FOG 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    Grill    is    the    club    most 
difficult  of  access  in  the  world. 
To  be  placed  on  its  rolls  distin 
guishes   the  new  member  as   greatly 
as  though  he  had  received  a  vacant 
Garter  or    had    been    caricatured    in 
"Vanity  Fair." 

Men  who  belong  to  the  Grill  Club 
never  mention  that  fact.  If  you  were 
to  ask  one  of  them  which  clubs  he  fre 
quents,  he  will  name  all  save  that  par 
ticular  one.  He  is  afraid  if  he  told 
you  he  belonged  to  the  Grill,  that  it 
would  sound  like  boasting. 

The  Grill  Club  dates  back  to  the  days 
when  Shakespeare's  Theatre  stood  on 
the  present  site  of  the  "  Times  "  office. 
It  has  a  golden  Grill  which  Charles 
the  Second  presented  to  the  Club, 
9 


IN    TEE    FOG 


and  the  original  manuscript  of  "  Tom 
and  Jerry  in  London,"  which  was 
bequeathed  to  it  by  Pierce  Egan  him 
self.  The  members,  when  they  write 
letters  at  the  Club,  still  use  sand  to 
blot  the  ink. 

The  Grill  enjoys  the  distinction  of 
having  blackballed,  without  political 
prejudice,  a  Prime  Minister  of  each 
party.  At  the  same  sitting  at  which 
one  of  these  fell,  it  elected,  on  account 
of  his  brogue  and  his  bulls,  Quiller, 
Q.  C.,  who  was  then  a  penniless  bar 
rister. 

When  Paul  Preval,  the  French  artist 
who  came  to  London  by  royal  com 
mand  to  paint  a  portrait  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  was  made  an  honorary  mem 
ber — only  foreigners  may  be  honorary 
members  —  he  said,  as  he  signed  his 
first  wine  card,  "I  would  rather  see 
my  name  on  that,  than  on  a  picture 
in  the  Louvre." 

10 


IN    THE    F  O  Q 


At  which  Quiller  remarked,  "  That  is 
a  devil  of  a  compliment,  because  the 
only  men  who  can  read  their  names  in 
the  Louvre  to-day  have  been  dead  fifty 
years." 

On  the  night  after  the  great  fog  of 
1897  there  were  five  members  in  the 
Club,  four  of  them  busy  with  supper 
and  one  reading  in  front  of  the  fire 
place.  There  is  only  one  room  to  the 
Club,  and  one  long  table.  At  the  far 
end  of  the  room  the  fire  of  the  grill 
glows  red,  and,  when  the  fat  falls, 
blazes  into  flame,  and  at  the  other 
there  is  a  broad  bow  window  of  dia 
mond  panes,  which  looks  down  upon 
the  street.  The  four  men  at  the  table 
were  strangers  to  each  other,  but  as 
they  picked  at  the  grilled  bones,  and 
sipped  their  Scotch  and  soda,  they 
conversed  with  such  charming  anima 
tion  that  a  visitor  to  the  Club,  which 
does  not  tolerate  visitors,  would  have 
11 


IN    THE    FOG 


counted  them  as  friends  of  long  ac 
quaintance,  certainly  not  as  English 
men  who  had  met  for  the  first  time, 
and  without  the  form  of  an  introduc 
tion.  But  it  is  the  etiquette  and  tradi 
tion  of  the  Grill,  that  whoever  enters  it 
must  speak  with  whomever  he  finds 
there.  It  is  to  enforce  this  rule  that 
there  is  but  one  long  table,  and  whether 
there  are  twenty  men  at  it  or  two,  the 
waiters,  supporting  the  rule,  will  place 
them  side  by  side. 

For  this  reason  the  four  strangers  at 
supper  were  seated  together,  with  the 
candles  grouped  about  them,  and  the 
long  length  of  the  table  cutting  a  white 
path  through  the  outer  gloom. 

"I  repeat,'7  said  the  gentleman  with 
the  black  pearl  stud,  "  that  the  days  for 
romantic  adventure  and  deeds  of  fool 
ish  daring  have  passed,  and  that  the 
fault  lies  with  ourselves.  Voyages  to 
the  pole  I  do  not  catalogue  as  adven- 
12 


IN    THE    FOG 


tares.  That  African  explorer,  young 
Chetney,  who  turned  up  yesterday  after 
he  was  supposed  to  have  died  in 
Uganda,  did  nothing  adventurous.  He 
made  maps  and  explored  the  sources  of 
rivers.  He  was  in  constant  danger,  but 
the  presence  of  danger  does  not  con 
stitute  adventure.  Were  that  so,  the 
chemist  who  studies  high  explosives, 
or  who  investigates  deadly  poisons, 
passes  through  adventures  daily.  No, 
'  adventures  are  for  the  adventurous/ 
But  one  no  longer  ventures.  The  spirit 
of  it  has  died  of  inertia.  We  are 
grown  too  practical,  too  just,  above 
all,  too  sensible.  In  this  room,  for  in 
stance,  members  of  this  Club  have,  at 
the  sword's  point,  disputed  the  proper 
scanning  of  one  of  Pope's  couplets. 
Over  so  weighty  a  matter  as  spilled 
Burgundy  on  a  gentleman's  cuff,  ten 
men  fought  across  this  table,  each  with 
his  rapier  in  one  hand  and  a  candle 
13 


IN    THE    F  O  O 


in  the  other.  All  ten  were  wounded. 
The  question  of  the  spilled  Burgundy 
concerned  but  two  of  them.  The  eight 
others  engaged  because  they  were  men 
of  l  spirit. '  They  were,  indeed,  the  first 
gentlemen  of  the  day.  To-night,  were 
you  to  spill  Burgundy  on  my  cuff,  were 
you  even  to  insult  me  grossly,  these 
gentlemen  would  not  consider  it  incum 
bent  upon  them  to  kill  each  other. 
They  would  separate  us,  and  to-morrow 
morning  appear  as  witnesses  against  us 
at  Bow  Street.  We  have  here  to-night, 
in  the  persons  of  Sir  Andrew  and  my 
self,  an  illustration  of  how  the  ways 
have  changed." 

The  men  around  the  table  turned 
and  glanced  toward  the  gentleman  in 
front  of  the  fireplace.  He  was  an 
elderly  and  somewhat  portly  person, 
with  a  kindly,  wrinkled  countenance, 
which  wore  continually  a  smile  of  al 
most  childish  confidence  and  good- 
14 


IN    THE    FOG 


"  But  to  what  end,  sir? "  inquired 
the  youngest  of  the  members.  "And 
why  Sir  Andrew,  of  all  persons  —  why 
should  you  select  him  for  this  adven 
ture?" 

The  gentleman  with  the  black  pearl 
shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  It  would  prevent  him  speaking  in 
the  House  to-night.  The  Navy  In 
crease  Bill,"  he  added  gloomily.  "It 
is  a  Government  measure,  and  Sir 
Andrew  speaks  for  it.  And  so  great  is 
his  influence  and  so  large  his  follow 
ing  that  if  he  does" — the  gentleman 
laughed  ruefully  — "  if  he  does,  it  will 
go  through.  Now,  had  I  the  spirit  of 
our  ancestors/7  he  exclaimed,  "I  would 
bring  chloroform  from  the  nearest 
chemist's  and  drug  him  in  that  chair. 
I  would  tumble  his  unconscious  form 
into  a  hansom  cab,  and  hold  him  pris 
oner  until  daylight.  If  I  did,  I  would 
save  the  British  taxpayer  the  cost  of 
16 


"  I  would  tumble  his  unconscious  form  into  a  hansom 
cab,  and  hold  him  prisoner  iintil  daylight.  " 


IN    THE    FOG 


five  more  battleships,  many  millions 
of  pounds." 

The  gentlemen  again  turned,  and 
surveyed  the  baronet  with  freshened 
interest.  The  honorary  member  of  the 
Grill,  whose  accent  already  had  be 
trayed  him  as  an  American,  laughed 
softly. 

"  To  look  at  him  now,"  he  said,  "  one 
would  not  guess  he  was  deeply  con 
cerned  with  the  affairs  of  state." 

The  others  nodded  silently. 

"  He  has  not  lifted  his  eyes  from 
that  book  since  we  first  entered,"  added 
the  youngest  member.  "  He  surely 
cannot  mean  to  speak  to-night. " 

"  Oh,  yes,  he  will  speak,"  muttered 
the  one  with  the  black  pearl  moodily. 
"  During  these  last  hours  of  the  session 
the  House  sits  late,  but  when  the  Navy 
bill  comes  up  on  its  third  reading  he 
will  be  in  his  place  —  and  he  will  pass 
it." 

17 


IN    THE    FOG 


The  fourth  member,  a  stout  and  florid 
gentleman  of  a  somewhat  sporting 
appearance,  in  a  short  smoking-jacket 
and  black  tie,  sighed  enviously. 

"  Fancy  one  of  us  being  as  cool  as 
that,  if  he  knew  he  had  to  stand  up 
within  an  hour  and  rattle  off  a  speech 
in  Parliament.  I  'd  be  in  a  devil  of  a 
funk  myself.  And  yet  he  is  as  keen 
over  that  book  he 's  reading  as  though 
he  had  nothing  before  him  until  bed 
time." 

"Yes,  see  how  eager  he  is,"  whis 
pered  the  youngest  member.  "  He  does 
not  lift  his  eyes  even  now  when  he 
cuts  the  pages.  It  is  probably  an  Ad 
miralty  Report,  or  some  other  weighty 
work  of  statistics  which  bears  upon  his 
speech. " 

The  gentleman  with  the  black  pearl 
laughed  morosely. 

"The  weighty  work  in  which  the 
eminent  statesman  is  so  deeply  en- 

18 


IN    THE    FOG 


grossed,"  he  said,  "  is  called  l  The  Great 
Rand  Robbery.'  It  is  a  detective  novel, 
for  sale  at  all  bookstalls." 

The  American  raised  his  eyebrows 
in  disbelief. 

"'The  Great  Rand  Robbery '?"  he 
repeated  incredulously.  "What  an 
odd  taste !" 

"  It  is  not  a  taste,  it  is  his  vice," 
returned  the  gentleman  with  the  pearl 
stud.  "  It  is  his  one  dissipation.  He  is 
noted  for  it.  You,  as  a  stranger,  could 
hardly  be  expected  to  know  of  this 
idiosyncrasy.  Mr.  Gladstone  sought 
relaxation  in  the  Greek  poets,  Sir 
Andrew  finds  his  in  Gaboriau.  Since 
I  have  been  a  member  of  Parliament  I 
have  never  seen  him  in  the  library 
without  a  shilling  shocker  in  his  hands. 
He  brings  them  even  into  the  sacred 
precincts  of  the  House,  and  from  the 
Government  benches  reads  them  con 
cealed  inside  his  hat.  Once  started  on 
19 


/  N    THE    FOG 


a  tale  of  murder,  robbery,  and  sudden 
death,  nothing  can  tear  him  from  it, 
not  even  the  call  of  the  division  bell, 
nor  of  hunger,  nor  the  prayers  of  the 
party  Whip.  He  gave  up  his  country 
house  because  when  he  journeyed  to 
it  in  the  train  he  would  become  so 
absorbed  in  his  detective  stories  that 
he  was  invariably  carried  past  his  sta 
tion.7'  The  member  of  Parliament 
twisted  his  pearl  stud  nervously,  and 
bit  at  the  edge  of  his  mustache.  "  If  it 
only  were  the  first  pages  of  '  The  Rand 
Robbery7  that  he  were  reading/7  he 
murmured  bitterly,  "  instead  of  the 
last !  With  such  another  book  as  that, 
I  swear  I  could  hold  him  here  until 
morning.  There  would  be  no  need  of 
chloroform  to  keep  him  from  the 
House." 

The  eyes  of  all  were  fastened  upon 
Sir  Andrew,  and  each  saw  with  fascina 
tion  that  with  his  forefinger  he  was 
20 


IN    THE    FOG 


now  separating  the  last  two  pages  of 
the  book.  The  member  of  Parliament 
struck  the  table  softly  with  his  open 
palm. 

"I  would  give  a  hundred  pounds/' 
he  whispered,  "  if  I  could  place  in  his 
hands  at  this  moment  a  new  story  of 
Sherlock  Holmes — a  thousand  pounds/ ' 
he  added  wildly  —  "five  thousand 
pounds ! ' ' 

The  American  observed  the  speaker 
sharply,  as  though  the  words  bore  to 
him  some  special  application,  and  then 
at  an  idea  which  apparently  had  but 
just  come  to  him,  smiled  in  great  em 
barrassment. 

Sir  Andrew  ceased  reading,  but,  as 
though  still  under  the  influence  of  the 
book,  sat  looking  blankly  into  the  open 
fire.  Forta  brief  space  no  one  moved 
until  the  baronet  withdrew  his  eyes 
and,  with  a  sudden  start  of  recollec 
tion,  felt  anxiously  for  his  watch.  He 
21 


IN    THE    FOG 


scanned  its  face  eagerly,  and  scrambled 
to  his  feet. 

The  voice  of  the  American  instantly 
broke  the  silence  in  a  high,  nervous 
accent. 

"  And  yet  Sherlock  Holmes  himself/7 
he  cried,  "  could  not  decipher  the  mys 
tery  which  to-night  baffles  the  police 
of  London. " 

At  these  unexpected  words,  which 
carried  in  them  something  of  the  tone 
of  a  challenge,  the  gentlemen  about 
the  table  started  as  suddenly  as  though 
the  American  had  fired  a  pistol  in  the 
air,  and  Sir  Andrew  halted  abruptly 
and  stood  observing  him  with  grave 
surprise. 

The  gentleman  with  the  black  pearl 
was  the  first  to  recover. 

"Yes,  yes,"  he  said  eagerly,  throw 
ing  himself  across  the  table.  "  A  mys 
tery  that  baffles  the  police  of  London. 
22 


Vi 


name,"  lie  said,  "is  Sears 


IN    TEE    FOG 


I  have  heard  nothing  of  it.  Tell  us  at 
once,  pray  do  —  tell  us  at  once." 

The  American  flushed  uncomfort 
ably,  and  picked  uneasily  at  the  table 
cloth. 

"No  one  but  the  police  has  heard 
of  it,"  he  murmured,  "  and  they  only 
through  me.  It  is  a  remarkable  crime, 
to  which,  unf  ortunately,  I  am  the  only 
person  who  can  bear  witness.  Because 
I  am  the  only  witness,  I  am,  in  spite 
of  my  immunity  as  a  diplomat,  de 
tained  in  London  by  the  authorities  of 
Scotland  Yard.  My  name,"  he  said, 
inclining  his  head  politely,  "  is  Sears, 
Lieutenant  Bipley  Sean  of  the  United 
Stales  Navy,  at  present  Naval  Attache 
to  the  Court  of  Russia.  Had  I  not 
been  detained  to-day  by  the  police  I 
would  have  started  this  morning  for 
Petersburg." 

The  gentleman  with  the  black  pearl 
interrupted  with  so  pronounced  an  ex- 

23 


IN    THE    F  0  0 


clamation  of  excitement  and  delight 
that  the  American  stammered  and 
ceased  speaking. 

"  Do  you  hear,  Sir  Andrew?  "  cried 
the  member  of  Parliament  jubilantly. 
"  An  American  diplomat  halted  by  our 
police  because  he  is  the  only  witness 
of  a  most  remarkable  crime  —  the  most 
remarkable  crime,  I  believe  you  said, 
sir,"  he  added,  bending  eagerly  toward 
the  naval  officer,  "  which  has  occurred 
in  London  in  many  years." 

The  American  moved  his  head  in 
assent  and  glanced  at  the  two  other 
members.  They  were  looking  doubt 
fully  at  him,  and  the  face  of  each 
showed  that  he  was  greatly  perplexed. 

Sir  Andrew  advanced  to  within  the 
light  of  the  candles  and  drew  a  chair 
toward  him. 

"  The  crime  must  be  exceptional  in 
deed,"  he  said,  "to  justify  the  police 
in  interfering  with  a  representative  of 
24 


IN    THE    FOG 


a  friendly  power.  If  I  were  not  forced 
to  leave  at  once,  I  should  take  the 
liberty  of  asking  yon  to  tell  us  the 
details." 

The  gentleman  with  the  pearl  pushed 
the  chair  toward  Sir  Andrew,  and  mo 
tioned  him  to  be  seated. 

"You  cannot  leave  us  now/'  he  ex 
claimed.  "  Mr.  Sears  is  just  about  to 
tell  us  of  this  remarkable  crime." 

He  nodded  vigorously  at  the  naval 
officer  and  the  American,  after  first 
glancing  doubtfully  toward  the  serv 
ants  at  the  far  end  of  the  room, 
leaned  forward  across  the  table.  The 
others  drew  their  chairs  nearer  and 
bent  toward  him.  The  baronet  glanced 
irresolutely  at  his  watch,  and  with  an 
exclamation  of  annoyance  snapped 
down  the  lid.  "They  can  wait,"  he 
muttered.  He  seated  himself  quickly 
and  nodded  at  Lieutenant  Sears. 
25 


IN    T  H  E    F  0  0 


"  If  you  will  be  so  kind  as  to  begin, 
sir,"  he  said  impatiently. 

"Of  course,"  said  the  American, 
"  you  understand  that  I  understand  that 
I  am  speaking  to  gentlemen.  The  con 
fidences  of  this  Club  are  inviolate. 
Until  the  police  give  the  facts  to  the 
public  press,  I  must  consider  you  my 
confederates.  You  have  heard  noth 
ing,  you  know  no  one  connected  with 
this  mystery.  Even  I  must  remain 
anonymous." 

The  gentlemen  seated  around  him 
nodded  gravely. 

"Of  course,"  the  baronet  assented 
with  eagerness,  "of  course." 

"We  will  refer  to  it,"  said  the  gen 
tleman  with  the  black  pearl,  "  as  i  The 
Story  of  the  Naval  Attach^.'  " 

"  I  arrived  in  London  two  days  ago," 

said  the  American,  "  and  I  engaged  a 

room  at  the  Bath  Hotel.    I  know  very 

few  people  in  London,  and  even  the 

26 


IN    THE    FOG 


members  of  our  embassy  were  stran 
gers  to  me.  But  in  Hong  Kong  I  had 
become  great  pals  with  an  officer  in 
your  navy,  who  has  since  retired,  and 
who  is  now  living  in  a  small  house  in 
Rutland  Gardens  opposite  the  Knights- 
bridge  barracks.  I  telegraphed  him 
that  I  was  in  London,  and  yesterday 
morning  I  received  a  most  hearty  invi 
tation  to  dine  with  him  the  same  even 
ing  at  his  house.  He  is  a  bachelor,  so 
we  dined  alone  and  talked  over  all  our 
old  days  on  the  Asiatic  Station,  and  of 
the  changes  which  had  come  to  us  since 
we  had  last  met  there.  As  I  was  leav 
ing  the  next  morning  for  my  post  at 
Petersburg,  and  had  many  letters  to 
write,  I  told  him,  about  ten  o'clock, 
that  I  must  get  back  to  the  hotel,  and 
he  sent  out  his  servant  to  call  a 
hansom. 

"  For  the  next  quarter  of  an  hour,  as 
we  sat  talking,  we  could  hear  the  cab 
27 


IN    THE    FOG 


whistle  sounding  violently  from  the 
doorstep,  but  apparently  with  no  result. 

"'It  cannot  be  that  the  cabmen  are 
on  strike/  my  friend  said,  as  he  rose 
and  walked  to  the  window. 

"  He  pulled  back  the  curtains  and  at 
once  called  to  me. 

" i  You  have  never  seen  a  London  fog, 
have  you! '  he  asked.  l  Well,  come 
here.  This  is  one  of  the  best,  or, 
rather,  one  of  the  worst,  of  them/  I 
joined  him  at  the  window,  but  I  could 
see  nothing.  Had  I  not  known  that 
the  house  looked  out  upon  the  street 
I  would  have  believed  that  I  was  facing 
a  dead  wall.  I  raised  the  sash  and 
stretched  out  my  head,  but  still  I  could 
see  nothing.  Even  the  light  of  the 
street  lamps  opposite,  and  in  the  upper 
windows  of  the  barracks,  had  been 
smothered  in  the  yellow  mist.  The 
lights  of  the  room  in  which  I  stood 
28 


IN    THE    FOG 


penetrated  the  fog  only  to  the  distance 
of  a  few  inches  from  my  eyes. 

"  Below  me  the  servant  was  still 
sounding  his  whistle,  but  I  could  afford 
to  wait  no  longer,  and  told  my  friend 
that  I  would  try  and  find  the  way  to 
my  hotel  on  foot.  He  objected,  but 
the  letters  I  had  to  write  were  for  the 
Navy  Department,  and,  besides,  I  had 
always  heard  that  to  be  out  in  a  Lon 
don  fog  was  the  most  wonderful  expe 
rience,  and  I  was  curious  to  investigate 
one  for  myself. 

"  My  friend  went  with  me  to  his  front 
door,  and  laid  down  a  course  for  me  to 
follow.  I  was  first  to  walk  straight 
across  the  street  to  the  brick  wall  of  the 
Knightsbridge  Barracks.  I  was  then 
to  feel  my  way  along  the  wall  until  I 
came  to  a  row  of  houses  set  back  from 
the  sidewalk.  They  would  bring  me  to 
a  cross  street.  On  the  other  side  of 
this  street  was  a  row  of  shops  which  I 


IN    THE    FOG 


was  to  follow  until  they  joined  the  iron 
railings  of  Hyde  Park.  I  was  to  keep 
to  ih.Q  railings  until  I  reached  the  gates 
at  Hyde  Park  Corner,  where  I  was  to 
lay  a  diagonal  course  across  Piccadilly, 
and  tack  in  toward  the  railings  of 
Green  Park.  At  the  end  of  these  rail 
ings,  going  east,  I  would  find  the  Wal- 
singham,  and  my  own  hotel. 

"  To  a  sailor  the  course  did  not  seem 
difficult,  so  I  bade  my  friend  good 
night  and  walked  forward  until  my  feet 
touched  the  paving.  I  continued  upon 
it  until  I  reached  the  curbing  of  the 
sidewalk.  A  few  steps  further,  and 
my  hands  struck  the  wall  of  the  bar 
racks.  I  turned  in  the  direction  from 
which  I  had  just  come,  and  saw  a 
square  of  faint  light  cut  in  the  yellow 
fog.  I  shouted  i  All  right/  and  the 
voice  of  my  friend  answered,  i  Good 
luck  to  you/  The  light  from  his  open 
door  disappeared  with  a  bang,  and  I 
30 


IN    THE    FOG 


was  left  alone  in  a  dripping,  yellow 
darkness.  I  have  been  in  the  Navy 
for  ten  years,  but  I  have  never  known 
such  a  fog  as  that  of  last  night,  not 
even  among  the  icebergs  of  Behring 
Sea.  There  one  at  least  could  see  the 
light  of  the  binnacle,  but  last  night  I 
could  not  even  distinguish  the  hand  by 
which  I  guided  myself  along  the  bar 
rack  wall.  At  sea  a  fog  is  a  natural 
phenomenon.  It  is  as  familiar  as  the 
rainbow  which  follows  a  storm,  it  is  as 
proper  that  a  fog  should  spread  upon 
the  waters  as  that  steam  shall  rise  from 
a  kettle.  But  a  fog  which  springs  from 
the  paved  streets,  that  rolls  between 
solid  house-fronts,  that  forces  cabs  to 
move  at  half  speed,  that  drowns  police 
men  and  extinguishes  the  electric  lights 
of  the  music  hall,  that  to  me  is  incom 
prehensible.  It  is  as  out  of  place  as  a 
tidal  wave  on  Broadway. 

"  As  I  felt  my  way  along  the  wall,  I 
31 


/  N    THE    FOG 


encountered  other  men  who  were  com 
ing  from  the  opposite  direction,  and 
each  time  when  we  hailed  each  other  I 
stepped  away  from  the  wall  to  make 
room  for  them  to  pass.  But  the  third 
time  I  did  this,  when  I  reached  out  my 
hand,  the  wall  had  disappeared,  and 
the  further  I  moved  to  find  it  the 
further  I  seemed  to  be  sinking  into 
space.  I  had  the  unpleasant  conviction 
that  at  any  moment  I  might  step  over 
a  precipice.  Since  I  had  set  out  I  had 
heard  no  traffic  in  the  street,  and  now, 
although  I  listened  some  minutes,  I 
could  only  distinguish  the  occasional 
footfalls  of  pedestrians.  Several  times 
I  called  aloud,  and  once  a  jocular  gen 
tleman  answered  me,  but  only  to  ask 
me  where  I  thought  he  was,  and  then 
even  he  was  swallowed  up  in  the 
silence.  Just  above  me  I  could  make 
out  a  jet  of  gas  which  I  guessed  came 
from  a  street  lamp,  and  I  moved  over 
32 


IN    THE    FOG 


to  that,  and,  while  I  tried  to  recover 
my  bearings,  kept  my  hand  on  the  iron 
post.  Except  for  this  flicker  of  gas,  no 
larger  than  the  tip  of  my  finger,  I  could 
distinguish  nothing  about  rne.  For  the 
rest,  the  mist  hung  between  me  and  the 
world  like  a  damp  and  heavy  blanket. 

"  I  could  hear  voices,  but  I  could  not 
tell  from  whence  they  came,  and  the 
scrape  of  a  foot  moving  cautiously,  or 
a  muffled  cry  as  some  one  stumbled, 
were  the  only  sounds  that  reached  me. 

"  I  decided  that  until  some  one  took 
me  in  tow  I  had  best  remain  where  I 
was,  and  it  must  have  been  for  ten  min 
utes  that  I  waited  by  the  lamp,  straining 
my  ears  and  hailing  distant  footfalls. 
In  a  house  near  me  some  people  were 
dancing  to  the  music  of  a  Hungarian 
band.  I  even  fancied  I  could  hear  the 
windows  shake  to  the  rhythm  of  their 
feet,  but  I  could  not  make  out  from 
which  part  of  the  compass  the  sounds 

33 


IN    THE    FOG 


came.  And  sometimes,  as  the  music 
rose,  it  seemed  close  at  my  hand,  and 
again,  to  be  floating  high  in  the  air 
above  my  head.  Although  I  was  sur 
rounded  by  thousands  of  householders, 
I  was  as  completely  lost  as  though  I  had 
been  set  down  by  night  in  the  Sahara 
Desert.  There  seemed  to  be  no  reason 
in  waiting  longer  for  an  escort,  so  I 
again  set  out,  and  at  once  bumped 
against  a  low  iron  fence.  At  first  I  be 
lieved  this  to  be  an  area  railing,  but  on 
following  it  I  found  that  it  stretched  for 
a  long  distance,  and  that  it  was  pierced 
at  regular  intervals  with  gates.  I  was 
standing  uncertainly  with  my  hand  on 
one  of  these  when  a  square  of  light  sud 
denly  opened  in  the  night,  and  in  it  I 
saw,  as  you  see  a  picture  thrown  by  a 
biograph  in  a  darkened  theatre,  a  young 
gentleman  in  evening  dress,  and  back  of 
him  the  lights  of  a  hall.  I  guessed  from 
its  elevation  and  distance  from  the  side- 
34 


"A  square  of  light  suddenly  opened  in  the  night  and 
in  it  I  saw  a  young  gentleman  in  ei'ening  dress." 


IN    THE    FOG 


walk  that  this  light  must  come  from 
the  door  of  a  house  set  back  from  the 
street,  and  I  determined  to  approach 
it  and  ask  the  young  man  to  tell  me 
where  I  was.  But  in  fumbling  with 
the  lock  of  the  gate  I  instinctively  bent 
my  head,  and  when  I  raised  it  again 
the  door  had  partly  closed,  leaving  only 
a  narrow  shaft  of  light.  Whether  the 
young  man  had  re-entered  the  house, 
or  had  left  it  I  could  not  tell,  but  I 
hastened  to  open  the  gate,  and  as  I 
stepped  forward  I  found  myself  upon 
an  asphalt  walk.  At  the  same  instant 
there  was  the  sound  of  quick  steps 
upon  the  path,  and  some  one  rushed 
past  me.  I  called  to  him,  but  he  made 
no  reply,  and  I  heard  the  gate  click  and 
the  footsteps  hurrying  away  upon  the 
sidewalk. 

"Under    other     circumstances    the 
young  man's  rudeness,  and  his  reckless 
ness  in  dashing  so  hurriedly  through 
35 


IN    THE    FOG 


the  mist,  would  have  struck  me  as 
peculiar,  but  everything  was  so  dis 
torted  by  the  fog  that  at  the  moment  I 
did  not  consider  it.  The  door  was  still 
as  he  had  left  it,  partly  open.  I  went 
up  the  path,  and,  after  much  fumbling, 
found  the  knob  of  the  door-bell  and 
gave  it  a  sharp  pull.  The  bell  an 
swered  me  from  a  great  depth  and 
distance,  but  no  movement  followed 
from  inside  the  house,  and  although  I 
pulled  the  bell  again  and  again  I  could 
hear  nothing  save  the  dripping  of  the 
mist  about  me.  I  was  anxious  to  be 
on  my  way,  but  unless  I  knew  where 
I  was  going  there  was  little  chance  of 
my  making  any  speed,  and  I  was  deter 
mined  that  until  I  learned  my  bearings 
I  would  not  venture  back  into  the  fog. 
So  I  pushed  the  door  open  and  stepped 
into  the  house. 

"  I  found  myself  in  a  long  and  nar 
row    hall,  upon  which  doors   opened 
36 


IN    THE    FOG 


from  either  side.  At  the  end  of  the 
hall  was  a  staircase  with  a  balustrade 
which  ended  in  a  sweeping  curve.  The 
balustrade  was  covered  with  heavy  Per 
sian  rugs,  and  the  walls  of  the  hall  were 
also  hung  with  them.  The  door  on  my 
left  was  closed,  but  the  one  nearer  me 
on  the  right  was  open,  and  as  I  stepped 
opposite  to  it  I  saw  that  it  was  a  sort 
of  reception  or  waiting-room,  and  that 
it  was  empty.  The  door  below  it  was 
also  open,  and  with  the  idea  that  I 
would  surely  find  some  one  there,  I 
walked  on  up  the  hall.  I  was  in  even 
ing  dress,  and  I  felt  I  did  not  look  like 
a  burglar,  so  I  had  no  great  fear  that, 
should  I  encounter  one  of  the  inmates 
of  the  house,  he  would  shoot  me  on 
sight.  The  second  door  in  the  hall 
opened  into  a  dining-room.  This  was 
also  empty.  One  person  had  been 
dining  at  the  table,  but  the  cloth  had 
not  been  cleared  away,  and  a  flickering 
37 


IN    THE    FOG 


candle  showed  half-filled  wineglasses 
and  the  ashes  of  cigarettes.  The  greater 
part  of  the  room  was  in  complete 
darkness. 

"  By  this  time  I  had  grown  conscious 
of  the  fact  that  I  was  wandering  about 
in  a  strange  house,  and  that,  apparently, 
I  was  alone  in  it.  The  silence  of  the 
place  began  to  try  my  nerves,  and  in  a 
sudden,  unexplainable  panic  I  started 
for  the  open  street.  But  as  I  turned,  I 
saw  a  man  sitting  on  a  bench,  which 
the  curve  of  the  balustrade  had  hidden 
from  me.  His  eyes  were  shut,  and  he 
was  sleeping  soundly. 

"  The  moment  before  I  had  been  be 
wildered  because  I  could  see  no  one, 
but  at  sight  of  this  man  I  was  much 
more  bewildered. 

"  He  was  a  very  large  man,  a  giant  in 

height,  with  long  yellow  hair  which 

hung  below    his    shoulders.     He  was 

dressed  in  a  red  silk  shirt  that  was 

38 


IN    THE    FOG 


belted  at  the  waist  and  hung  outside 
black  velvet  trousers  which,  in  turn, 
were  stuffed  into  high  black  boots.  I 
recognized  the  costume  at  once  as  that 
of  a  Russian  servant,  but  what  a  Rus 
sian  servant  in  his  native  livery  could 
be  doing  in  a  private  house  in  Knights- 
bridge  was  incomprehensible. 

"  I  advanced  and  touched  the  man 
on  the  shoulder,  and  after  an  effort  he 
awoke,  and,  on  seeing  me,  sprang  to 
his  feet  and  began  bowing  rapidly  and 
making  deprecatory  gestures.  I  had 
picked  up  enough  Russian  in  Peters 
burg  to  make  out  that  the  man  was 
apologizing  for  having  fallen  asleep, 
and  I  also  was  able  to  explain  to  him 
that  I  desired  to  see  his  master. 

"He  nodded  vigorously,  and  said, 
'Will  the  Excellency  come  this  way! 
The  Princess  is  here.7 

"  I  distinctly  made  out  the  word 
'princess,'  and  I  was  a  good  deal  em- 
39 


IN    THE    FOG 


barrassed.  I  had  thought  it  would  be 
easy  enough  to  explain  my  intrusion  to 
a  man,  but  how  a  woman  would  look 
at  it  was  another  matter,  and  as  I  fol 
lowed  him  down  the  hall  I  was  some 
what  puzzled. 

"As  we  advanced,  he  noticed  that 
the  front  door  was  standing  open,  and 
with  an  exclamation  of  surprise,  has 
tened  toward  it  and  closed  it.  Then 
he  rapped  twice  on  the  door  of  what 
was  apparently  the  drawing-room. 
There  was  no  reply  to  his  knock,  and 
he  tapped  again,  and  then  timidly,  and 
cringing  subserviently,  opened  the  door 
and  stepped  inside.  He  withdrew  him 
self  at  once  and  stared  stupidly  at  me, 
shaking  his  head. 

" '  She  is  not  there/  he  said.  He 
stood  for  a  moment  gazing  blankly 
through  the  open  door,  and  then  has 
tened  toward  the  dining-room.  The 
solitary  candle  which  still  burned  there 
40 


1  N    THE    FOG 


seemed  to  assure  him  that  the  room 
also  was  empty.  He  came  back  and 
bowed  me  toward  the  drawing-room. 
'She  is  above/  he  said;  'I  will  in 
form  the  Princess  of  the  Excellency's 
presence/ 

"Before  I  could  stop  him  he  had 
turned  and  was  running  up  the  stair 
case,  leaving  me  alone  at  the  open  door 
of  the  drawing-room.  I  decided  that 
the  adventure  had  gone  quite  far 
enough,  and  if  I  had  been  able  to  ex 
plain  to  the  Russian  that  I  had  lost 
my  way  in  the  fog,  and  only  wanted  to 
get  back  into  the  street  again,  I  would 
have  left  the  house  on  the  instant. 

"  Of  course,  when  I  first  rang  the  bell 
of  the  house  I  had  no  other  expectation 
than  that  it  would  be  answered  by  a 
parlor-maid  who  would  direct  me  on 
my  way.  I  certainly  could  not  then 
foresee  that  I  would  disturb  a  Russian 
princess  in  her  boudoir,  or  that  I 
41 


IN    T  H  E    F  O  G 


might  be  thrown  out  by  her  athletic 
bodyguard.  Still,  I  thought  I  ought 
not  now  to  leave  the  house  without 
making  some  apology,  and,  if  the  worst 
should  come,  I  could  show  my  card. 
They  could  hardly  believe  that  a  mem 
ber  of  an  Embassy  had  any  designs 
upon  the  hat-rack. 

"  The  room  in  which  I  stood  was 
dimly  lighted,  but  I  could  see  that,  like 
the  hall,  it  was  hung  with  heavy  Per 
sian  rugs.  The  corners  were  filled 
with  palms,  and  there  was  the  unmis 
takable  odor  in  the  air  of  Russian  cig 
arettes,  and  strange,  dry  scents  that 
carried  me  back  to  the  bazaars  of  Vladi- 
vostock.  Near  the  front  windows  was 
a  grand  piano,  and  at  the  other  end  of 
the  room  a  heavily  carved  screen  of 
some  black  wood,  picked  out  with  ivory. 
The  screen  was  overhung  with  a  canopy 
of  silken  draperies,  and  formed  a  sort 
of  alcove.  In  front  of  the  alcove  was 
42 


IN    THE    FOG 


spread  the  white  skin  of  a  polar  bear, 
and  set  on  that  was  one  of  those  low 
Turkish  coffee  tables.  It  held  a  lighted 
spirit-lamp  and  two  gold  coffee  cups. 
I  had  heard  no  movement  from  above 
stairs,  and  it  must  have  been  fully  three 
minutes  that  I  stood  waiting,  noting 
these  details  of  the  room  and  wonder 
ing  at  the  delay,  and  at  the  strange 
silence. 

"And  then,  suddenly,  as  my  eye 
grew  more  used  to  the  half-light,  I  saw, 
projecting  from  behind  the  screen  as 
though  it  were  stretched  along  the  back 
of  a  divan,  the  hand  of  a  man  and  the 
lower  part  of  his  arm.  I  was  as  startled 
as  though  I  had  come  across  a  footprint 
on  a  deserted  island.  Evidently  the 
man  had  been  sitting  there  since  I  had 
come  into  the  room,  even  since  I  had 
entered  the  house,  and  he  had  heard 
the  servant  knocking  upon  the  door. 
Why  he  had  not  declared  himself  I 
43 


1  N    THE    FOG 


could  not  understand,  but  I  supposed 
that  possibly  he  was  a  guest,  with  no 
reason  to  interest  himself  in  the  Prin 
cess's  other  visitors,  or  perhaps,  for 
some  reason,  he  did  not  wish  to  be  ob 
served.  I  could  see  nothing  of  him 
except  his  hand,  but  I  had  an  unpleas 
ant  feeling  that  he  had  been  peering  at 
me  through  the  carving  in  the  screen, 
and  that  he  still  was  doing  so.  I 
moved  my  feet  noisily  on  the  floor  and 
said  tentatively,  '  I  beg  your  pardon.' 

"  There  was  no  reply,  and  the  hand 
did  not  stir.  Apparently  the  man  was 
bent  upon  ignoring  me,  but  as  all  I 
wished  was  to  apologize  for  my  intru 
sion  and  to  leave  the  house,  I  walked 
up  to  the  alcove  and  peered  around  it. 
Inside  the  screen  was  a  divan  piled 
with  cushions,  and  on  the  end  of  it 
nearer  me  the  man  was  sitting.  He 
was  a  young  Englishman  with  light 
yellow  hair  and  a  deeply  bronzed  face, 
44 


IN    THE    FOG 


He  was  seated  with  his  arms  stretched 
out  along  the  back  of  the  divan,  and 
with  his  head  resting  against  a  cushion. 
His  attitude  was  one  of  complete  ease. 
But  his  mouth  had  fallen  open,  and  his 
eyes  were  set  with  an  expression  of 
utter  horror.  At  the  first  glance  I  saw 
that  he  was  quite  dead. 

"  For  a  flash  of  time  I  was  too  star 
tled  to  act,  but  in  the  same  flash  I  was 
convinced  that  the  man  had  met  his 
death  from  no  accident,  that  he  had 
not  died  through  any  ordinary  failure 
of  the  laws  of  nature.  The  expression 
on  his  face  was  much  too  terrible  to  be 
misinterpreted.  It  spoke  as  eloquently 
as  words.  It  told  me  that  before  the 
end  had  come  he  had  watched  his  death 
approach  and  threaten  him. 

"  I  was  so  sure  he  had  been  murdered 
that  I  instinctively  looked  on  the  floor 
for  the  weapon,  and,  at  the  same  mo 
ment,  out    of    concern    for    my   own 
45 


IN    THE    FOG 


safety,  quickly  behind  me;  but  the 
silence  of  the  house  continued  un 
broken. 

"  I  have  seen  a  great  number  of  dead 
men ;  I  was  on  the  Asiatic  Station  dur 
ing  the  Japanese-Chinese  war.  I  was 
in  Port  Arthur  after  the  massacre.  So 
a  dead  man,  for  the  single  reason  that 
he  is  dead,  does  not  repel  me,  and, 
though  I  knew  that  there  was  no  hope 
that  this  man  was  alive,  still  for  de 
cency's  sake,  I  felt  his  pulse,  and  while 
I  kept  my  ears  alert  for  any  sound  from 
the  floors  above  me,  I  pulled  open  his 
shirt  and  placed  my  hand  upon  his 
heart.  My  fingers  instantly  touched 
upon  the  opening  of  a  wound,  and  as  I 
withdrew  them  I  found  them  wet  with 
blood.  He  was  in  evening  dress,  and 
in  the  wide  bosom  of  his  shirt  I  found 
a  narrow  slit,  so  narrow  that  in  the 
dim  light  it  was  scarcely  discernable. 
The  wound  was  no  wider  than  the 
46 


IN    THE    FOG 


smallest  blade  of  a  pocket-knife,  but 
when  I  stripped  the  shirt  away  from 
the  chest  and  left  it  bare,  I  found  that 
the  weapon,  narrow  as  it  was,  had  been 
long  enough  to  reach  his  heart.  There 
is  no  need  to  tell  you  how  I  felt  as  I 
stood  by  the  body  of  this  boy,  for  he 
was  hardly  older  than  a  boy,  or  of  the 
thoughts  that  came  into  my  head.  I 
was  bitterly  sorry  for  this  stranger, 
bitterly  indignant  at  his  murderer,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  selfishly  concerned 
for  my  own  safety  and  for  the  notoriety 
which  I  saw  was  sure  to  follow.  My 
instinct  was  to  leave  the  body  where  it 
lay,  and  to  hide  myself  in  the  fog,  but 
I  also  felt  that  since  a  succession  of 
accidents  had  made  me  the  only  wit 
ness  to  a  crime,  my  duty  was  to  make 
myself  a  good  witness  and  to  assist  to 
establish  the  facts  of  this  murder. 

"  That  it  might  possibly  be  a  suicide, 
and   not   a    murder,   did   not   disturb 
47 


IN    THE    F  O  O 


me  for  a  moment.  The  fact  that  the 
weapon  had  disappeared,  and  the  ex 
pression  on  the  boy's  face  were  enough 
to  convince,  at  least  me,  that  he  had 
had  no  hand  in  his  own  death.  I 
judged  it,  therefore,  of  the  first  import 
ance  to  discover  who  was  in  the  house, 
or,  if  they  had  escaped  from  it,  who 
had  been  in  the  house  before  I  entered 
it.  I  had  seen  one  man  leave  it;  but 
all  I  could  tell  of  him  was  that  he  was 
a  young  man,  that  he  was  in  evening 
dress,  and  that  he  had  fled  in  such 
haste  that  he  had  not  stopped  to  close 
the  door  behind  him. 

"The  Russian  servant  I  had  found 
apparently  asleep,  and,  unless  he  acted 
a  part  with  supreme  skill,  he  was  a 
stupid  and  ignorant  boor,  and  as  inno 
cent  of  the  murder  as  myself.  There 
was  still  the  Russian  princess  whom  he 
had  expected  to  find,  or  had  pretended 
to  expect  to  find,  in  the  same  room  with 
48 


IN    THE    FOG 


the  murdered  man.  I  judged  that  she 
must  now  be  either  upstairs  with  the 
servant,  or  that  she  had,  without  his 
knowledge,  already  fled  from  the  house. 
When  I  recalled  his  apparently  genuine 
surprise  at  not  finding  her  in  the  draw 
ing-room,  this  latter  supposition  seemed 
the  more  probable.  Nevertheless,  I  de 
cided  that  it  was  my  duty  to  make  a 
search,  and  after  a  second  hurried  look 
for  the  weapon  among  the  cushions  of 
the  divan,  and  upon  the  floor,  I  cau 
tiously  crossed  the  hall  and  entered 
the  dining-room. 

"  The  single  candle  was  still  flicker 
ing  in  the  draught,  and  showed  only 
the  white  cloth.  The  rest  of  the  room 
was  draped  in  shadows.  I  picked  up 
the  candle,  and,  lifting  it  high  above 
my  head,  moved  around  the  corner  of 
the  table.  Either  my  nerves  were  on 
such  a  stretch  that  no  shock  could 
strain  them  further,  or  my  mind  was 


1  N    THE    FOG 


inoculated  to  horrors,  for  I  did  not  cry 
out  at  what  I  saw  nor  retreat  from  it. 
Immediately  at  my  feet  was  the  body 
of  a  beautiful  woman,  lying  at  full 
length  upon  the  floor,  her  arms  flung 
out  on  either  side  of  her,  and  her 
white  face  and  shoulders  gleaming  dully 
in  the  unsteady  light  of  the  candle. 
Around  her  throat  was  a  great  chain  of 
diamonds,  and  the  light  played  upon 
these  and  made  them  flash  and  blaze  in 
tiny  flames.  But  the  woman  who  wore 
them  was  dead,  and  I  was  so  certain  as 
to  how  she  had  died  that  without  an 
instant's  hesitation  I  dropped  on  my 
knees  beside  her  and  placed  my  hands 
above  her  heart.  My  fingers  again 
touched  the  thin  slit  of  a  wound.  I 
had  no  doubt  in  my  mind  but  that  this 
was  the  Russian  princess,  and  when  I 
lowered  the  candle  to  her  face  I  was 
assured  that  this  was  so.  Her  features 
showed  the  finest  lines  of  both  the  Slav 
50 


"At  my  feet  was  the  body  of  a  beautiful  woman  lying 
at  full  length  on  the  floor" 


IN    THE    FOG 


and  the  Jewess;  the  eyes  were  black, 
the  hair  blue-black  and  wonderfully 
heavy,  and  her  skin,  even  in  death,  was 
rich  in  color.  She  was  a  surpassingly 
beautiful  woman. 

"I  rose  and  tried  to  light  another 
candle  with  the  one  I  held,  but  I  found 
that  my  hand  was  so  unsteady  that  I 
could  not  keep  the  wicks  together.  It 
was  my  intention  to  again  search  for 
this  strange  dagger  which  had  been 
used  to  kill  both  the  English  boy  and 
the  beautiful  princess,  but  before  I 
could  light  the  second  candle  I  heard 
footsteps  descending  the  stairs,  and  the 
Russian  servant  appeared  in  the  door 
way. 

"  My  face  was  in  darkness,  or  I  am 
sure  that  at  the  sight  of  it  he  would 
have  taken  alarm,  for  at  that  moment 
I  was  not  sure  but  that  this  man  him 
self  was  the  murderer.  His  own  face 
was  plainly  visible  to  me  in  the  light 
51 


IN    THE    FOG 


from  the  hall,  and  I  could  see  that  it 
wore  an  expression  of  dull  bewilder 
ment.  I  stepped  quickly  toward  him 
and  took  a  firm  hold  upon  his  wrist. 

"  '  She  is  not  there/  he  said.  '  The 
Princess  has  gone.  They  have  all 
gone.7 

"'Who  have  gone? '  I  demanded. 
1  Who  else  has  been  here? ' 

"  '  The  two  Englishmen/  he  said. 

"  <  What  two  Englishmen?  '  I  de 
manded.  '  What  are  their  names?  ' 

"  The  man  now  saw  by  my  manner 
that  some  question  of  great  moment 
hung  upon  his  answer,  and  he  began  to 
protest  that  he  did  not  know  the  names 
of  the  visitors  and  that  until  that  even 
ing  he  had  never  seen  them. 

"  I  guessed  that  it  was  my  tone  which 
frightened  him,  so  I  took  my  hand  off 
his  wrist  and  spoke  less  eagerly. 

"  '  How  long  have  they  been  here?  f 
I  asked,  '  and  when  did  they  go?  ' 
52 


IN    THE    FOG 


"  He  pointed  behind  him  toward  the 
drawing-room. 

"  '  One  sat  there  with  the  Princess/ 
he  said ;  i  the  other  came  after  I  had 
placed  the  coffee  in  the  drawing-room. 
The  two  Englishmen  talked  together 
and  the  Princess  returned  here  to  the 
table.  She  sat  there  in  that  chair,  and 
I  brought  her  cognac  and  cigarettes. 
Then  I  sat  outside  upon  the  bench.  It 
was  a  feast  day,  and  I  had  been  drink 
ing.  Pardon,  Excellency,  but  I  fell 
asleep.  When  I  woke,  your  Excellency 
was  standing  by  me,  but  the  Princess 
and  the  two  Englishmen  had  gone. 
That  is  all  I  know/ 

"  I  believed  that  the  man  was  telling 
me  the  truth.  His  fright  had  passed, 
and  he  was  now  apparently  puzzled, 
but  not  alarmed. 

" '  You  must  remember  the  names  of 
the  Englishmen/  I  urged.  'Try  to 
think.  When  you  announced  them  to 
53 


IN    T  H  E    F  O  0 


the  Princess  what  name  did  you 
give? ' 

"  At  this  question  he  exclaimed  with 
pleasure,  and,  beckoning  to  me,  ran 
hurriedly  down  the  hall  and  into  the 
drawing-room.  In  the  corner  furthest 
from  the  screen  was  the  piano,  and  on 
it  was  a  silver  tray.  He  picked  this  up 
and,  smiling  with  pride  at  his  own  in 
telligence,  pointed  at  two  cards  that 
lay  upon  it.  I  took  them  up  and  read 
the  names  engraved  upon  them." 

The  American  paused  abruptly,  and 
glanced  at  the  faces  about  him.  "I 
read  the  names,"  he  repeated.  He 
spoke  with  great  reluctance. 

"Continue!"  cried  the  Baronet, 
sharply. 

"  I  read  the  names,"  said  the  Amer 
ican  with  evident  distaste,  "and  the 
family  name  of  each  was  the  same. 
They  were  the  names  of  two  brothers. 
One  is  well  known  to  you.  It  is  that 
54 


1  N    THE    FOG 


of  the  African  explorer  of  whom  this 
gentleman  was  just  speaking.  I  mean 
the  Earl  of  Chetney.  The  other  was 
the  name  of  his  brother,  Lord  Arthur 
Chetney." 

The  men  at  the  table  fell  back  as 
though  a  trapdoor  had  fallen  open  at 
their  feet. 

"Lord  Chetney  I"  they  exclaimed  in 
chorus.  They  glanced  at  each  other 
and  back  to  the  American  with  every 
expression  of  concern  and  disbelief. 

"It  is  impossible!"  cried  the  Baro 
net.  "  Why,  my  dear  sir,  young  Chet 
ney  only  arrived  from  Africa  yesterday. 
It  was  so  stated  in  the  evening  papers." 

The  jaw  of  the  American  set  in  a 
resolute  square,  and  he  pressed  his  lips 
together. 

"You  are   perfectly  right,   sir,"  he 
said,  "  Lord  Chetney  did  arrive  in  Lon 
don  yesterday  morning,  and  yesterday 
night  I  found  his  dead  body." 
55 


IN    THE    FOG 


The  youngest  member  present  was 
the  first  to  recover.  He  seemed  much 
less  concerned  over  the  identity  of  the 
murdered  man  than  at  the  interruption 
of  the  narrative. 

"  Oh,  please  let  him  go  on !  "  he  cried. 
"What  happened  then?  You  say  you 
found  two  visiting  cards.  How  do  you 
know  which  card  was  that  of  the  mur 
dered  man?  " 

The  American,  before  he  answered, 
waited  until  the  chorus  of  exclamations 
had  ceased.  Then  he  continued  as 
though  he  had  not  been  interrupted. 

"  The  instant  I  read  the  names  upon 
the  cards,"  he  said,  "I  ran  to  the  screen 
and,  kneeling  beside  the  dead  man,  be 
gan  a  search  through  his  pockets.  My 
hand  at  once  fell  upon  a  card-case,  and 
I  found  on  all  the  cards  it  contained 
the  title  of  the  Earl  of  Chetney.  His 
watch  and  cigarette-case  also  bore  his 
name.  These  evidences,  and  the  fact 
56 


IN    THE    FOG 


of  his  bronzed  skin,  and  that  his  cheek 
bones  were  worn  with  fever,  con 
vinced  me  that  the  dead  man  was  the 
African  explorer,  and  the  boy  who  had 
fled  past  me  in  the  night  was  Arthur, 
his  younger  brother. 

"  I  was  so  intent  upon  my  search  that 
I  had  forgotten  the  servant,  and  I  was 
still  on  my  knees  when  I  heard  a  cry 
behind  me.  I  turned,  and  saw  the  man 
gazing  down  at  the  body  in  abject 
horror. 

"  Before  I  could  rise,  he  gave  another 
cry  of  terror,  and,  flinging  himself  into 
the  hall,  raced  toward  the  door  to  the 
street.  I  leaped  after  him,  shouting  to 
him  to  halt,  but  before  I  could  reach 
the  hall  he  had  torn  open  the  door,  and 
I  saw  him  spring  out  into  the  yellow 
fog.  I  cleared  the  steps  in  a  jump  and 
ran  down  the  garden  walk  but  just  as 
the  gate  clicked  in  front  of  me.  I  had 
it  open  on  the  instant,  and,  following 
57 


IN    THE    FOG 


the  sound  of  the  man's  footsteps,  I 
raced  after  him  across  the  open  street. 
He,  also,  could  hear  me,  and  he  instantly 
stopped  running,  and  there  was  absolute 
silence.  He  was  so  near  that  I  almost 
fancied  I  could  hear  him  panting,  and 
I  held  my  own  breath  to  listen.  But 
I  could  distinguish  nothing  but  the 
dripping  of  the  mist  about  us,  and  from 
far  off  the  music  of  the  Hungarian 
band,  which  I  had  heard  when  I  first 
lost  myself. 

"All  I  could  see  was  the  square  of 
light  from  the  door  I  had  left  open 
behind  me,  and  a  lamp  in  the  hall 
beyond  it  flickering  in  the  draught. 
But  even  as  I  watched  it,  the  flame  of 
the  lamp  was  blown  violently  to  and 
fro,  and  the  door,  caught  in  the  same 
current  of  air,  closed  slowly.  I  knew 
if  it  shut  I  could  not  again  enter  the 
house,  and  I  rushed  madly  toward  it. 
I  believe  I  even  shouted  out,  as  though 
58 


IN    THE    FOG 


it  were  something  human  which  I  could 
compel  to  obey  me,  and  then  I  caught 
my  foot  against  the  curb  and  smashed 
into  the  sidewalk.  When  I  rose  to  my 
feet  I  was  dizzy  and  half  stunned,  and 
though  I  thought  then  that  I  was  mov 
ing  toward  the  door,  I  know  now  that 
I  probably  turned  directly  from  it ;  for, 
as  I  groped  about  in  the  night,  calling 
frantically  for  the  police,  my  fingers, 
touched  nothing  but  the  dripping  fog, 
and  the  iron  railings  for  which  I  sought 
seemed  to  have  melted  away.  For 
many  minutes  I  beat  the  mist  with 
my  arms  like  one  at  blind  man's  buff, 
turning  sharply  in  circles,  cursing  aloud 
at  my  stupidity  and  crying  continually 
for  help.  At  last  a  voice  answered  me 
from  the  fog,  and  I  found  myself  held 
in  the  circle  of  a  policeman's  lantern. 

"  That  is  the  end  of  my  adventure. 
What  I  have  to  tell  you  now  is  what  I 
learned  from  the  police. 
59 


IN    1  HE    FOG 


"At  the  station-house  to  which  the 
man  guided  me  I  related  what  you  have 
just  heard.  I  told  them  that  the  house 
they  must  at  once  find  was  one  set  back 
from  the  street  within  a  radius  of  two 
hundred  yards  from  the  Knightsbridge 
Barracks,  that  within  fifty  yards  of  it 
some  one  was  giving  a  dance  to  the 
music  of  a  Hungarian  band,  and  that 
the  railings  before  it  were  as  high  as  a 
man's  waist  and  filed  to  a  point.  With 
that  to  work  upon,  twenty  men  were  at 
once  ordered  out  into  the  fog  to  search 
for  the  house,  and  Inspector  Lyle  him 
self  was  despatched  to  the  home  of  Lord 
Edam,  Chetney's  father,  with  a  warrant 
for  Lord  Arthur7  s  arrest.  I  was  thanked 
and  dismissed  on  my  own  recognizance. 

"  This  morning,  Inspector  Lyle  called 
on  me,  and  from  him  I  learned  the 
police  theory  of  the  scene  I  have  just 
described. 

"  Apparently  I  had  wandered  very  far 
60 


IN    THE    FOG 


in  the  fog,  for  up  to  noon  to-day  the 
house  had  not  been  found,  nor  had 
they  been  able  to  arrest  Lord  Arthur. 
He  did  not  return  to  his  f ather's  house 
last  night,  and  there  is  no  trace  of  him ; 
but  from  what  the  police  knew  of  the 
past  lives  of  the  people  I  found  in  that 
lost  house,  they  have  evolved  a  theory, 
and  their  theory  is  that  the  murders 
were  committed  by  Lord  Arthur. 

"  The  infatuation  of  his  elder  brother, 
Lord  Chetney,  for  a  Russian  princess,  so 
Inspector  Lyle  tells  me,  is  well  known 
to  every  one.  About  two  years  ago  the 
Princess  Zichy,  as  she  calls  herself, 
and  he  were  constantly  together,  and 
Chetney  informed  his  friends  that  they 
were  about  to  be  married.  The  woman 
was  notorious  in  two  continents,  and 
when  Lord  Edam  heard  of  his  son's 
infatuation  he  appealed  to  the  police 
for  her  record. 

"  It  is  through  his  having  applied  to 
61 


IN    THE    FOG 


them  that  they  know  so  much  concern 
ing  her  and  her  relations  with  the 
Chetneys.  From  the  police  Lord  Edam 
learned  that  Madame  Zichy  had  once 
been  a  spy  in  the  employ  of  the  Rus 
sian  Third  Section,  but  that  lately  she 
had  been  repudiated  by  her  own  gov 
ernment  and  was  living  by  her  wits,  by 
blackmail,  and  by  her  beauty.  Lord 
Edam  laid  this  record  before  his  son, 
but  Chetney  either  knew  it  already  or 
the  woman  persuaded  him  not  to  be 
lieve  in  it,  and  the  father  and  son 
parted  in  great  anger.  Two  days  later 
the  marquis  altered  his  will,  leaving  all 
of  his  money  to  the  younger  brother, 
Arthur. 

"The  title  and  some  of  the  landed 
property  he  could  not  keep  from  Chet 
ney,  but  he  swore  if  his  son  saw  the 
woman  again  that  the  will  should  stand 
as  it  was,  and  he  would  be  left  without 
a  penny. 

62 


IN    THE    FOG 


"  This  was  about  eighteen  months 
ago,  when  apparently  Chetney  tired  of 
the  Princess,  and  suddenly  went  off  to 
shoot  and  explore  in  Central  Africa. 
No  word  came  from  him,  except  that 
twice  he  was  reported  as  having  died 
of  fever  in  the  jungle,  and  finally  two 
traders  reached  the  coast  who  said  they 
had  seen  his  body.  This  was  accepted 
by  all  as  conclusive,  and  young  Arthur 
was  recognized  as  the  heir  to  the  Edam 
millions.  On  the  strength  of  this  sup 
position  he  at  once  began  to  borrow 
enormous  sums  from  the  money  lend 
ers.  This  is  of  great  importance,  as 
the  police  believe  it  was  these  debts 
which  drove  him  to  the  murder  of  his 
brother.  Yesterday,  as  you  know,  Lord 
Chetney  suddenly  returned  from  the 
grave,  and  it  was  the  fact  that  for  two 
years  he  had  been  considered  as  dead 
which  lent  such  importance  to  his  re 
turn  and  which  gave  rise  to  those  col- 
63 


IN    THE    FOG 


umns  of  detail  concerning  him  which 
appeared  in  all  the  afternoon  papers. 
But,  obviously,  during  his  absence  he 
had  not  tired  of  the  Princess  Zichy,  for 
we  know  that  a  few  hours  after  he 
reached  London  he  sought  her  out. 
His  brother,  who  had  also  learned  of 
his  reappearance  through  the  papers, 
probably  suspected  which  would  be  the 
house  he  would  first  visit,  and  followed 
him  there,  arriving,  so  the  Russian 
servant  tells  us,  while  the  two  were  at 
coffee  in  the  drawing-room.  The  Prin 
cess,  then,  we  also  learn  from  the 
servant,  withdrew  to  the  dining-room, 
leaving  the  brothers  together.  What 
happened  one  can  only  guess. 

"  Lord  Arthur  knew  now  that  when 
it  was  discovered  he  was  no  longer  the 
heir,  the  money-lenders  would  come 
down  upon  him.  The  police  believe 
that  he  at  once  sought  out  his  brother 
to  beg  for  money  to  cover  the  post- 
64 


1  N    THE    FOG 


obits,  but  that,  considering  the  sum 
he  needed  was  several  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  pounds,  Chetney  re 
fused  to  give  it  him.  No  one  knew 
that  Arthur  had  gone  to  seek  out  his 
brother.  They  were  alone.  It  is  pos 
sible,  then,  that  in  a  passion  of  disap 
pointment,  and  crazed  with  the  disgrace 
which  he  saw  before  him,  young  Arthur 
made  himself  the  heir  beyond  further 
question.  The  death  of  his  brother 
would  have  availed  nothing  if  the 
woman  remained  alive.  It  is  then  pos 
sible  that  he  crossed  the  hall,  and  with 
the  same  weapon  which  made  him  Lord 
Edam's  heir  destroyed  the  solitary  wit 
ness  to  the  murder.  The  only  other 
person  who  could  have  seen  it  was 
sleeping  in  a  drunken  stupor,  to  which 
fact  undoubtedly  he  owed  his  life. 
And  yet,"  concluded  the  Naval  Attach^, 
leaning  forward  and  marking  each  word 
with  his  finger,  "Lord  Arthur  blun- 
65 


IN    THE    FOG 


dered  fatally.  In  his  haste  he  left  the 
door  of  the  house  open,  so  giving  ac 
cess  to  the  first  passer-by,  and  he  forgot 
that  when  he  entered  it  he  had  handed 
his  card  to  the  servant.  That  piece  of 
paper  may  yet  send  him  to  the  gallows. 
In  the  mean  time  he  has  disappeared 
completely,  and  somewhere,  in  one  of 
the  millions  of  streets  of  this  great 
capital,  in  a  locked  and  empty  house, 
lies  the  body  of  his  brother,  and  of  the 
woman  his  brother  loved,  undiscovered, 
unburied,  and  with  their  murder  un 
avenged.  " 

In  the  discussion  which  followed  the 
conclusion  of  the  story  of  the  Naval 
Attache  the  gentleman  with  the  pearl 
took  no  part.  Instead,  he  arose,  and, 
beckoning  a  servant  to  a  far  corner  of 
the  room,  whispered  earnestly  to  him 
until  a  sudden  movement  on  the  part 
of  Sir  Andrew  caused  him  to  return 
hurriedly  to  the  table. 
66 


IN    THE    F  0  0 


"  There  are  several  points,  'in  Mr. 
Sears's  story  I  want  explained,"  he  cried. 
"Be  seated,  Sir  Andrew,"  he  begged. 
"  Let  us  have  the  opinion  of  an  expert. 
1  do  not  care  what  the  police  think,  I 
want  to  know  what  you  think. " 

But  Sir  Henry  rose  reluctantly  from 
his  chair. 

"  I  should  like  nothing  better  than  to 
discuss  this/7  he  said.  "  But  it  is  most 
important  that  I  proceed  to  the  House. 
I  should  have  been  there  some  time 
ago."  He  turned  toward  the  servant 
and  directed  him  to  call  a  hansom. 

The  gentleman  with  the  pearl  stud 
looked  appealingly  at  the  Naval  At- 
tach6.  "  There  are  surely  many  details 
that  you  have  not  told  us,"  he  urged. 
"Some  you  have  forgotten. " 

The  Baronet  interrupted  quickly. 

"I  trust  not,"  he  said,  "for  I  could 
not  possibly  stop  to  hear  them." 

"  The  story  is  finished,"  declared  the 
67 


IN    T  H  E    F  0  G 


Naval  Attach^ ;  "  until  Lord  Arthur  is 
arrested  or  the  bodies  are  found  there 
is  nothing  more  to  tell  of  either  Chet- 
ney  or  the  Princess  Zichy." 

"Of  Lord  Chetney  perhaps  not/' 
interrupted  the  sporting-looking  gentle 
man  with  the  black  tie,  "  but  there  '11 
always  be  something  to  tell  of  the 
Princess  Zichy.  I  know  enough  sto 
ries  about  her  to  fill  a  book.  She  was 
a  most  remarkable  woman."  The 
speaker  dropped  the  end  of  his  cigar 
into  his  coffee  cup  and,  taking  his  case 
from  his  pocket,  selected  a  fresh  one. 
As  he  did  so  he  laughed  and  held  up 
the  case  that  the  others  might  see  it. 
It  was  an  ordinary  cigar-case  of  well- 
worn  pig-skin,  with  a  silver  clasp. 

"  The  only  time  I  ever  met  her,"  he 
said,  "  she  tried  to  rob  me  of  this." 

The  Baronet  regarded  him  closely. 

"  She  tried  to  rob  you?  "  he  repeated. 

"  Tried  to  rob  me  of  this,"  continued 
68 


The  Princess  Zichy" 


IN    THE    FOG 


the  gentleman  in  the  black  tie,  "and 
of  the  Czarina's  diamonds."  His  tone 
was  one  of  mingled  admiration  and 
injury. 

"  The  Czarina's  diamonds ! "  exclaimed 
the  Baronet.  He  glanced  quickly  and 
suspiciously  at  the  speaker,  and  then  at 
the  others  about  the  table.  But  their 
faces  gave  evidence  of  no  other  emotion 
than  that  of  ordinary  interest. 

"  Yes,  the  Czarina's  diamonds,"  re 
peated  the  man  with  the  black  tie. 
"It  was  a  necklace  of  diamonds.  I 
was  told  to  take  them  to  the  Russian 
Ambassador  in  Paris  who  was  to  de 
liver  them  at  Moscow.  I  am  a  Queen's 
Messenger,"  he  added. 

"  Oh,  I  see,"  exclaimed  Sir  Andrew 
in  a  tone  of  relief.  "  And  you  say  that 
this  same  Princess  Zichy,  one  of  the 
victims  of  this  double  murder,  endeav 
ored  to  rob  you  of — of — that  cigar-case." 

"And  the  Czarina's  diamonds,"  an- 
69 


IN    THE    FOG 


swered  the  Queen's  Messenger  imper- 
turbably.  "  It's  not  much  of  a  story, 
but  it  gives  you  an  idea  of  the  woman's 
character.  The  robbery  took  place  be 
tween  Paris  and  Marseilles." 

The  Baronet  interrupted  him  with  an 
abrupt  movement.  "  No,  no,"  he  cried, 
shaking  his  head  in  protest.  "  Do  not 
tempt  me.  I  really  cannot  listen.  I 
must  be  at  the  House  in  ten  minutes." 

"  I  am  sorry,"  said  the  Queen's  Mes 
senger.  He  turned  to  those  seated 
about  him.  "I  wonder  if  the  other 
gentlemen  — ' '  he  inquired  tentatively. 
There  was  a  chorus  of  polite  murmurs, 
and  the  Queen's  Messenger,  bowing  his 
head  in  acknowledgment,  took  a  pre 
paratory  sip  from  his  glass.  At  the 
same  moment  the  servant  to  whom  the 
man  with  the  black  pearl  had  spoken, 
slipped  a  piece  of  paper  into  his  hand. 
He  glanced  at  it,  frowned,  and  threw  it 
under  the  table. 

70 


IN    THE    FOG 


The  servant  bowed  to  the  Baronet. 

"Your  hansom  is  waiting,  Sir  An 
drew,"  he  said. 

"  The  necklace  was  worth  twenty 
thousand  pounds/7  began  the  Queen's 
Messenger.  "It  was  a  present  from 
the  Queen  of  England  to  celebrate — " 
The  Baronet  gave  an  exclamation  of 
angry  annoyance. 

"Upon  my  word,  this  is  most  pro 
voking/'  he  interrupted.  "I  really 
ought  not  to  stay.  But  I  certainly 
mean  to  hear  this."  He  turned  irrita 
bly  to  the  servant.  "  Tell  the  hansom 
to  wait,"  he  commanded,  and,  with  an 
air  of  a  boy  who  is  playing  truant, 
slipped  guiltily  into  his  chair. 

The  gentleman  with  the  black  pearl 
smiled  blandly,  and  rapped  upon  the 
table. 

"  Order,  gentlemen,"  he  said.    "  Order 
for  the  story  of  the  Queen's  Messenger 
and  the  Czarina's  diamonds." 
71 


CHAPTER  H 

"  /TVHE  necklace  was  a  present  from 
the  Queen  of  England  to  the 
Czarina  of  Russia,"  began  the  Queen's 
Messenger.  "It  was  to  celebrate  the 
occasion  of  the  Czar's  coronation.  Our 
Foreign  Office  knew  that  the  Russian 
Ambassador  in  Paris  was  to  proceed  to 
Moscow  for  that  ceremony,  and  I  was 
directed  to  go  to  Paris  and  turn  over  the 
necklace  to  him.  But  when  I  reached 
Paris  I  found  he  had  not  expected  me  for 
a  week  later  and  was  taking  a  few  days' 
vacation  at  Nice.  His  people  asked  me 
to  leave  the  necklace  with  them  at  the 
Embassy,  but  I  had  been  charged  to 
get  a  receipt  for  it  from  the  Ambassador 
himself,  so  I  started  at  once  for  Nice 
The  fact  that  Monte  Carlo  is  not  two 
73 


IN    THE    FOG 


thousand  miles  from  Nice  may  have 
had  something  to  do  with  making  me 
carry  out  my  instructions  so  carefully. 
"  Now,  how  the  Princess  Zichy  came 
to  find  out  about  the  necklace  I  don't 
know,  but  I  can  guess.  As  you  have 
just  heard,  she  was  at  one  time  a  spy 
in  the  service  of  the  Russian  govern 
ment.  And  after  they  dismissed  her 
she  kept  up  her  acquaintance  with 
many  of  the  Russian  agents  in  London. 
It  is  probable  that  through  one  of  them 
she  learned  that  the  necklace  was  to  be 
sent  to  Moscow,  and  which  one  of  the 
Queen's  Messengers  had  been  detailed 
to  take  it  there.  Still,  I  doubt  if  even 
that  knowledge  would  have  helped  her 
if  she  had  not  also  known  something 
which  I  supposed  no  one  else  in  the 
world  knew  but  myself  and  one  other 
man.  And,  curiously  enough,  the  other 
man  was  a  Queen's  Messenger  too,  and 
a  friend  of  mine.  You  must  know  that 
74 


IN    THE    FOG 


up  to  the  time  of  this  robbery  I  had 
always  concealed  my  despatches  in  a 
manner  peculiarly  my  own.  I  got  the 
idea  from  that  play  called  i  A  Scrap  of 
Paper.7  In  it  a  man  wants  to  hide  a 
certain  compromising  document.  He 
knows  that  all  his  rooms  will  be  se 
cretly  searched  for  it,  so  he  puts  it  in 
a  torn  envelope  and  sticks  it  up  where 
any  one  can  see  it  on  his  mantel  shelf. 
The  result  is  that  the  woman  who  is 
ransacking  the  house  to  find  it  looks  in 
all  the  unlikely  places,  but  passes  over 
the  scrap  of  paper  that  is  just  under 
her  nose.  Sometimes  the  papers  and 
packages  they  give  us  to  carry  about 
Europe  are  of  very  great  value,  and 
sometimes  they  are  special  makes  of 
cigarettes,  and  orders  to  court  dress 
makers.  Sometimes  we  know  what  we 
are  carrying  and  sometimes  we  do  not. 
If  it  is  a  large  sum  of  money  or  a  treaty, 
they  generally  tell  us.  But,  as  a  rule, 
75 


IN    THE    FOG 


we  have  no  knowledge  of  what  the 
package  contains ;  so,  to  be  on  the  safe 
side,  we  naturally  take  just  as  great 
care  of  it  as  though  we  knew  it  held 
the  terms  of  an  ultimatum  or  the  crown 
jewels.  As  a  rule,  my  confreres  carry 
the  official  packages  in  a  despatch-box, 
which  is  just  as  obvious  as  a  lady's 
jewel  bag  in  the  hands  of  her  maid. 
Every  one  knows  they  are  carrying 
something  of  value.  They  put  a  pre 
mium  on  dishonesty.  Well,  after  I  saw 
the  '  Scrap  of  Paper '  play,  I  determined 
to  put  the  government  valuables  in  the 
most  unlikely  place  that  any  one  would 
look  for  them.  So  I  used  to  hide  the 
documents  they  gave  me  inside  my  rid 
ing-boots,  and  small  articles,  such  as 
money  or  jewels,  I  carried  in  an  old 
cigar-case.  After  I  took  to  using  my 
case  for  that  purpose  I  bought  a  new 
one,  exactly  like  it,  for  my  cigars.  But 
to  avoid  mistakes,  I  had  my  initials 
76 


IN    THE    FOG 


placed  on  both  sides  of  the  new  one, 
and  the  moment  I  touched  the  case, 
even  in  the  dark,  I  could  tell  which  it 
was  by  the  raised  initials. 

"No  one  knew  of  this  except  the 
Queen's  Messenger  of  whom  I  spoke. 
We  once  left  Paris  together  on  the 
Orient  Express.  I  was  going  to  Con 
stantinople  and  he  was  to  stop  off  at 
Vienna.  On  the  journey  I  told  him  of 
my  peculiar  way  of  hiding  things  and 
showed  him  my  cigar-case.  If  I  recollect 
rightly,  on  that  trip  it  held  the  grand 
cross  of  St.  Michael  and  St.  George, 
which  the  Queen  was  sending  to  our 
Ambassador.  The  Messenger  was  very 
much  entertained  at  my  scheme,  and 
some  months  later  when  he  met  the 
Princess  he  told  her  about  it  as  an 
amusing  story.  Of  course,  he  had  no 
idea  she  was  a  Russian  spy.  He  didn't 
know  anything  at  all  about  her,  except 
that  she  was  a  very  attractive  woman. 
77 


IN    THE    FOG 


It  was  indiscreet,  but  lie  could  not  pos 
sibly  have  guessed  that  she  could  ever 
make  any  use  of  what  he  told  her. 

"  Later,  after  the  robbery,  I  remem 
bered  that  I  had  informed  this  young 
chap  of  my  secret  hiding-place,  and 
when  I  saw  him  again  I  questioned  him 
about  it.  He  was  greatly  distressed, 
and  said  he  had  never  seen  the  impor 
tance  of  the  secret.  He  remembered 
he  had  told  several  people  of  it,  *  and 
among  others  the  Princess  Zichy.  T  In 
that  way  I  found  out  that  it  was  "she 
who  had  robbed  me,  and  I  know  that 
from  the  moment  I  left  London  she  was 
following  me  and  that  she  knew  then 
that  the  diamonds  were  concealed  in 
my  cigar-case. 

"  My  train  for  Nice  left  Paris  at  ten 
in  the  morning.  When  I  travel  at 
night  I  generally  tell  the  chef  de  gare 
that  I  am  a  Queen's  Messenger,  and  he 
gives  me  a  compartment  to  myself, 
78 


IN    TEE    FOG 


but  in  the  daytime  I  take  whatever 
offers.  On  this  morning  I  had  found 
an  empty  compartment,  and  I  had 
tipped  the  guard  to  keep  every  one  else 
out,  not  from  any  fear  of  losing  the 
diamonds,  but  because  I  wanted  to 
smoke.  He  had  locked  the  door,  and 
as  the  last  bell  had  rung  I  supposed  I 
was  to  travel  alone,  so  I  began  to  ar 
range  my  traps  and  make  myself  com 
fortable.  The  diamonds  in  the  cigar- 
case  were  in  the  inside  pocket  of  my 
waistcoat,  and  as  they  made  a  bulky 
package,  I  took  them  out,  intending  to 
put  them  in  my  hand  bag.  It  is  a  small 
satchel  like  a  bookmaker's,  or  those 
hand  bags  that  couriers  carry.  I  wear 
it  slung  from  a  strap  across  my  shoul 
der,  and,  no  matter  whether  I  am  sit 
ting  or  walking,  it  never  leaves  me. 

"  I  took  the  cigar-case  which  held  the 
necklace  from  my  inside  pocket  and 
the  case  which  held  the  cigars  out  of 
79 


IN    THE    FOG 


the  satchel,  and  while  I  was  searching 
through  it  for  a  box  of  matches  I  laid 
the  two  cases  beside  me  on  the  seat. 

"At  that  moment  the  train  started, 
but  at  the  same  instant  there  was  a 
rattle  at  the  lock  of  the  compartment, 
and  a  couple  of  porters  lifted  and 
shoved  a  woman  through  the  door,  and 
hurled  her  rugs  and  umbrellas  in  after 
her. 

"  Instinctively  I  reached  for  the  dia 
monds.  I  shoved  them  quickly  into 
the  satchel  and,  pushing  them  far  down 
to  the  bottom  of  the  bag,  snapped  the 
spring  lock.  Then  I  put  the  cigars  in 
the  pocket  of  my  coat,  but  with  the 
thought  that  now  that  I  had  a  woman 
as  a  travelling  companion  I  would  prob 
ably  not  be  allowed  to  enjoy  them. 

"One  of  her  pieces  of  luggage  had 

fallen  at  my  feet,  and  a  roll  of  rugs  had 

landed  at  my  side.    I  thought  if  I  hid 

the  fact  that  the  lady  was  not  welcome, 

80 


IN    T  H  E    F  0  G 


and  at  once  endeavored  to  be  civil,  she 
might  permit  me  to  smoke.  So  I  picked 
her  hand  bag  off  the  floor  and  asked  her 
where  I  might  place  it. 

"  As  I  spoke  I  looked  at  her  for  the 
first  time,  and  saw  that  she  was  a  most 
remarkably  handsome  woman. 

"  She  smiled  charmingly  and  begged 
me  not  to  disturb  myself.  Then  she 
arranged  her  own  things  about  her,  and, 
opening  her  dressing-bag,  took  out  a 
gold  cigarette  case. 

"'Do  you  object  to  smoke? '  she 
asked. 

"I  laughed  and  assured  her  I  had 
been  in  great  terror  lest  she  might  ob 
ject  to  it  herself. 

" i  If  you  like  cigarettes/  she  said, 
'  will  you  try  some  of  these?  They  are 
rolled  especially  for  my  husband  in 
Russia,  and  they  are  supposed  to  be 
very  good/ 

"  I  thanked  her,  and  took  one  from 
81 


IN    T  H  E    F  O  O 


her  case,  and  I  found  it  so  much  better 
than  my  own  that  I  continued  to 
smoke  her  cigarettes  throughout  the 
rest  of  the  journey.  I  must  say  that 
we  got  on  very  well.  I  judged  from 
the  coronet  on  her  cigarette-case,  and 
from  her  manner,  which  was  quite  as 
well  bred  as  that  of  any  woman  I  ever 
met,  that  she  was  some  one  of  impor 
tance,  and  though  she  seemed  almost 
too  good  looking  to  be  respectable,  I 
determined  that  she  was  some  grande 
dame  who  was  so  assured  of  her  posi 
tion  that  she  could  afford  to  be  uncon 
ventional.  At  first  she  read  her  novel, 
and  then  she  made  some  comment  on 
the  scenery,  and  finally  we  began  to 
discuss  the  current  politics  of  the  Con 
tinent.  She  talked  of  all  the  cities  in 
Europe,  and  seemed  to  know  every  one 
worth  knowing.  But  she  volunteered 
nothing  about  herself  except  that  she 
frequently  made  use  of  the  expression, 
82 


THE    FOG 


4  When  my  husband  was  stationed  at 
Vienna/  or  'When  my  husband  was 
promoted  to  Rome/  Once  she  said  to 
me,  '  I  have  often  seen  you  at  Monte 
Carlo.  I  saw  you  when  you  won  the 
pigeon  championship/  I  told  her  that 
I  was  not  a  pigeon  shot,  and  she  gave  a 
little  start  of  surprise.  i  Oh,  I  beg  your 
pardon,'  she  said;  ' I  thought  you  were 
Morton  Hamilton,  the  English  cham 
pion.'  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  do  look 
like  Hamilton,  but  I  know  now  that 
her  object  was  to  make  me  think  that 
she  had  no  idea  as  to  who  I  really  was. 
She  need  n't  have  acted  at  all,  for  I  cer 
tainly  had  no  suspicions  of  her,  and 
was  only  too  pleased  to  have  so  charm 
ing  a  companion. 

"The  one  thing  that  should  have 
made  me  suspicious  was  the  fact  that 
at  every  station  she  made  some  trivial 
excuse  to  get  me  out  of  the  compart 
ment.  She  pretended  that  her  maid 
83 


IN    THE    FOG 


was  travelling  back  of  us  in  one 
of  the  second-class  carriages,  and  kept 
saying  she  could  not  imagine  why 
the  woman  did  not  come  to  look  after 
her,  and  if  the  maid  did  not  turn  up 
at  the  next  stop,  would  I  be  so  very 
kind  as  to  get  out  and  bring  her 
whatever  it  was  she  pretended  she 
wanted. 

"  I  had  taken  my  dressing-case  from 
the  rack  to  get  out  a  novel,  and  had  left 
it  on  the  seat  opposite  to  mine,  and  at 
the  end  of  the  compartment  farthest 
from  her.  And  once  when  I  came  back 
from  buying  her  a  cup  of  chocolate,  or 
from  some  other  fool  errand,  I  found 
her  standing  at  my  end  of  the  compart 
ment  with  both  hands  on  the  dressing- 
bag.  She  looked  at  me  without  so 
much  as  winking  an  eye,  and  shoved 
the  case  carefully  into  a  corner.  '  Your 

bag  slipped  off  on  the  floor/  she  said. 
84 


IN    THE    FOG 


1  If  you  Ve  got  any  bottles  in  it,  you 
had  better  look  and  see  that  they're 
not  broken/ 

"And  I  give  you  my  word,  I  was 
such  an  ass  that  I  did  open  the  case 
and  looked  all  through  it.  She  must 
have  thought  I  was  a  Juggins.  I  get 
hot  all  over  whenever  I  remember  it. 
But  in  spite  of  my  dulness,  and  her 
cleverness,  she  could  n't  gain  anything 
by  sending  me  away,  because  what  she 
wanted  was  in  the  hand  bag  and  every 
time  she  sent  me  away  the  hand  bag 
went  with  me. 

"After  the  incident  of  the  dressing- 
case  her  manner  changed.  Either  in 
my  absence  she  had  had  time  to  look 
through  it,  or,  when  I  was  examining 
it  for  broken  bottles,  she  had  seen  every 
thing  it  held. 

"  From  that  moment  she  must  have 
been  certain  that  the  cigar-case,  in 
which  she  knew  I  carried  the  diamonds, 
85 


IN    THE    FOG 


was  in  the  bag  that  was  fastened  to  my 
body,  and  from  that  time  on  she  prob 
ably  was  plotting  how  to  get  it  from  me. 
"  Her  anxiety  became  most  apparent. 
She  dropped  the  great  lady  manner, 
and  her  charming  condescension  went 
with  ito  She  ceased  talking,  and,  when 
I  spoke,  answered  me  irritably,  or  at 
random.  No  doubt  her  mind  was  en 
tirely  occupied  with  her  plan.  The 
end  of  our  journey  was  drawing  rapidly 
nearer,  and  her  time  for  action  was 
being  cut  down  with  the  speed  of  the 
express  train.  Even  I,  unsuspicious 
as  I  was,  noticed  that  something  was 
very  wrong  with  her.  I  really  believe 
that  before  we  reached  Marseilles  if  I 
had  not,  through  my  own  stupidity, 
given  her  the  chance  she  wanted,  she 
might  have  stuck  a  knife  in  me  and 
rolled  me  out  on  the  rails.  But  as  it 
was,  I  only  thought  that  the  long  jour 
ney  had  tired  her.  I  suggested  that  it 


IN    THE    FOG 


was  a  very  trying  trip,  and  asked  her 
if  she  would  allow  me  to  offer  her  some 
of  my  cognac. 

"  She  thanked  me  and  said,  '  No/  and 
then  suddenly  her  eyes  lighted,  and 
she  exclaimed,  i  Yes,  thank  you,  if  you 
will  be  so  kind.' 

"  My  flask  was  in  the  hand  bag,  and 
I  placed  it  on  my  lap  and  with  my 
thumb  slipped  back  the  catch.  As  I 
keep  my  tickets  and  railroad  guide  in 
the  bag,  I  am  so  constantly  opening  it 
that  I  never  bother  to  lock  it,  and  the 
fact  that  it  is  strapped  to  me  has  always 
been  sufficient  protection.  But  I  can 
appreciate  now  what  a  satisfaction,  and 
what  a  torment  too,  it  must  have  been 
to  that  woman  when  she  saw  that  the 
bag  opened  without  a  key. 

"  While  we  were  crossing  the  moun 
tains  I  had  felt  rather  chilly  and  had 
been  wearing  a  light  racing  coat.  But 
after  the  lamps  were  lighted  the  com- 
87 


IN    THE    FOG 


partment  became  very  hot  and  stuffy, 
and  I  found  the  coat  uncomfortable. 
So  I  stood  up,  and,  after  first  slipping 
the  strap  of  the  bag  over  my  head,  I 
placed  the  bag  in  the  seat  next  me  and 
pulled  off  the  racing  coat.  I  don't 
blame  myself  for  being  careless;  the 
bag  was  still  within  reach  of  my  hand, 
and  nothing  would  have  happened  if  at 
that  exact  moment  the  train  had  not 
stopped  at  Aries.  It  was  the  combina 
tion  of  my  removing  the  bag  and  our 
entering  the  station  at  the  same  instant 
which  gave  the  Princess  Zichy  the 
chance  she  wanted  to  rob  me. 

"I  needn't  say  that  she  was  clever 
enough  to  take  it.  The  train  ran  into 
the  station  at  full  speed  and  came  to  a 
sudden  stop.  I  had  just  thrown  my 
coat  into  the  rack,  and  had  reached 
out  my  hand  for  the  bag.  In  another 
instant  I  would  have  had  the  strap 
around  my  shoulder.  But  at  that 
88 


"  This  gave  the  Princess  Zichy  the  chance  she  wanted 
to  rob  me." 


IN    THE    FOG 


moment  the  Princess  threw  open  the 
door  of  the  compartment  and  beckoned 
wildly  at  the  people  on  the  platform. 
'  Natalie !  '  she  called,  i  Natalie !  here 
I  am.  Come  here !  This  way ! '  She 
turned  upon  me  in  the  greatest  excite 
ment.  i  My  maid !  '  she  cried.  '  She  is 
looking  for  me.  She  passed  the  win 
dow  without  seeing  me.  Go,  please, 
and  bring  her  back/  She  continued 
pointing  out  of  the  door  and  beckoning 
me  with  her  other  hand.  There  cer 
tainly  was  something  about  that 
woman's  tone  which  made  one  jump. 
When  she  was  giving  orders  you  had 
no  chance  to  think  of  anything  else. 
So  I  rushed  out  on  my  errand  of  mercy, 
and  then  rushed  back  again  to  ask  what 
the  maid  looked  like. 

"  '  In  black/  she  answered,  rising  and 
blocking  the  door  of  the  compartment. 
'  All  in  black,  with  a  bonnet !  ' 

"  The  train  waited  three  minutes  at 
89 


IN    THE    FOG 


Aries,  and  in  that  time  I  suppose  I 
must  have  rushed  up  to  over  twenty 
women  and  asked,  i  Are  you  Natalie! ' 
The  only  reason  I  wasn't  punched 
with  an  umbrella  or  handed  over  to  the 
police  was  that  they  probably  thought 
I  was  crazy. 

"  When  I  jumped  back  into  the  com 
partment  the  Princess  was  seated  where 
I  had  left  her,  but  her  eyes  were  burn 
ing  with  happiness.  She  placed  her 
hand  on  my  arm  almost  affectionately, 
and  said  in  a  hysterical  way,  '  You  are 
very  kind  to  me.  I  am  so  sorry  to 
have  troubled  you.' 

"I  protested  that  every  woman  on 
the  platform  was  dressed  in  black. 

"'  Indeed  I  am  so  sorry/  she  said, 
laughing;  and  she  continued  to  laugh 
until  she  began  to  breathe  so  quickly 
that  I  thought  she  was  going  to  faint. 

"  I  can  see  now  that  the  last  part  of 
that  journey  must  have  been  a  terrible 
90 


"  She  knew  she  would  be  twenty  thousand  pounds 
richer. ' ' 


•    • 


IN    THE    FOG 


half  hour  for  her.  She  had  the  cigar- 
case  safe  enough,  but  she  knew  that 
she  herself  was  not  safe.  She  under 
stood  if  I  were  to  open  my  bag,  even 
at  the  last  minute,  and  miss  the  case,  I 
would  know  positively  that  she  had 
taken  it.  I  had  placed  the  diamonds 
in  the  bag  at  the  very  moment  she  en 
tered  the  compartment,  and  no  one  but 
our  two  selves  had  occupied  it  since. 
She  knew  that  when  we  reached  Mar 
seilles  she  would  either  be  twenty  thou 
sand  pounds  richer  than  when  she  left 
Paris,  or  that  she  would  go  to  jail. 
That  was  the  situation  as  she  must 
have  read  it,  and  I  don't  envy  her  her 
state  of  mind  during  that  last  half  hour. 
It  must  have  been  hell. 

"  I  saw  that  something  was  wrong, 
and  in  my  innocence  I  even  wondered 
if  possibly  my  cognac  had  not  been  a 
little  too  strong.  For  she  suddenly 
developed  into  a  most  brilliant  conver- 
91 


IN    THE    FOG 


sationalist,  and  applauded  and  laughed 
at  everything  I  said,  and  fired  off  ques 
tions  at  me  like  a  machine  gun,  so  that 
I  had  no  time  to  think  of  anything  but 
of  what  she  was  saying.  Whenever  I 
stirred  she  stopped  her  chattering  and 
leaned  toward  me,  and  watched  me  like 
a  cat  over  a  mouse-hole.  I  wondered 
how  I  could  have  considered  her  ap. 
agreeable  travelling  companion.  I 
thought  I  would  have  preferred  to  be 
locked  in  with  a  lunatic.  I  don't  like 
to  think  how  she  would  have  acted  if  I 
had  made  a  move  to  examine  the  bag, 
but  as  I  had  it  safely  strapped  around 
me  again,  I  did  not  open  it,  and  I 
reached  Marseilles  alivec  As  we  drew 
into  the  station  she  shook  hands  with 
me  and  grinned  at  me  like  a  Cheshire 
cat. 

"  i  I  cannot  tell  you,'  she  said, '  how 
much  I  have  to  thank  you  for/     What 
do  you  think  of  that  for  impudence? 
92 


IN    THE    FOG 


"  I  offered  to  put  her  in  a  carriage,  but 
she  said  she  must  find  Natalie,  and  that 
she  hoped  we  would  meet  again  at  the 
hotel.  So  I  drove  off  by  myself,  won 
dering  who  she  was,  and  whether  Nat 
alie  was  not  her  keeper. 

"  I  had  to  wait  several  hours  for  the 
train  to  Nice,  and  as  I  wanted  to  stroll 
around  the  city  I  thought  I  had  better 
put  the  diamonds  in  the  safe  of  the 
hotel.  As  soon  as  I  reached  my  room 
I  locked  the  door,  placed  the  hand  bag 
on  the  table  and  opened  it.  I  felt 
among  the  things  at  the  top  of  it,  but 
failed  to  touch  the  cigar-case.  I  shoved 
my  hand  in  deeper,  and  stirred  the 
things  about,  but  still  I  did  not  reach 
it.  A  cold  wave  swept  down  my  spine, 
and  a  sort  of  emptiness  came  to  the  pit 
of  my  stomach.  Then  I  turned  red-hot, 
and  the  sweat  sprung  out  all  over  me. 
I  wet  my  lips  with  my  tongue,  and  said 
to  myself, '  Don't  be  an  ass.  Pull  your- 
93 


IN    THE    FOG 


self  together,  pull  yourself  together. 
Take  the  things  out,  one  at  a  time. 
It 's  there,  of  course  it 's  there.  Don't 
be  an  ass/ 

"  So  I  put  a  brake  on  my  nerves  and 
began  very  carefully  to  pick  out  the 
things  one  by  one,  but  after  another 
second  I  could  not  stand  it,  and  I 
rushed  across  the  room  and  threw 
out  everything  on  the  bed.  But  the 
diamonds  were  not  among  them.  I 
pulled  the  things  about  and  tore  them 
open  and  shuffled  and  rearranged  and 
sorted  them,  but  it  was  no  use.  The 
cigar-case  was  gone.  I  threw  every 
thing  in  the  dressing-case  out  on  the 
floor,  although  I  knew  it  was  useless  to 
look  for  it  there.  I  knew  that  I  had 
put  it  in  the  bag.  I  sat  down  and  tried 
to  think.  I  remembered  I  had  put  it 
in  the  satchel  at  Paris  just  as  that 
woman  had  entered  the  compartment, 
and  I  had  been  alone  with  her  ever 
94 


' '  /  rusJied  across  the  room  and  threw  out  everything 
on  tJie  bed." 


IN    THE    FOG 


since,  so  it  was  she  who  had  robbed 
me.  But  how  I  It  had  never  left  my 
shoulder.  And  then  I  remembered  that 
it  had  —  that  I  had  taken  it  off  when 
I  had  changed  my  coat  and  for  the  few 
moments  that  I  was  searching  for  Nata 
lie.  I  remembered  that  the  woman  had 
sent  me  on  that  goose  chase,  and  that 
at  every  other  station  she  had  tried  to 
get  rid  of  me  on  some  fool  errand. 

"  I  gave  a  roar  like  a  mad  bull,  and  I 
jumped  down  the  stairs  six  steps  at  a 
time. 

"  I  demanded  at  the  office  if  a  distin 
guished  lady  of  title,  possibly  a  Rus 
sian,  had  just  entered  the  hotel. 

"As  I  expected,  she  had  not.  I 
sprang  into  a  cab  and  inquired  at  two 
other  hotels,  and  then  I  saw  the  folly 
of  trying  to  catch  her  without  outside 
help,  and  I  ordered  the  fellow  to  gallop 
to  the  office  of  the  Chief  of  Police.  I 
told  my  story,  and  the  ass  in  charge 
95 


IN    THE    FOG 


asked  me  to  calm  myself,  and  wanted  to 
take  notes.  I  told  Mm  this  was  no 
time  for  taking  notes,  but  for  doing 
something.  He  got  wrathy  at  that,  and 
I  demanded  to  be  taken  at  once  to  his 
Chief.  The  Chief,  he  said,  was  very 
busy,  and  could  not  see  me.  So  I 
showed  him  my  silver  greyhound.  In 
eleven  years  I  had  never  used  it  but 
once  before.  I  stated  in  pretty  vigor 
ous  language  that  I  was  a  Queen's 
Messenger,  and  that  if  the  Chief  of 
Police  did  not  see  me  instantly  he 
would  lose  his  official  head.  At  that 
the  fellow  jumped  off  his  high  horse 
and  ran  with  me  to  his  Chief,  —  a  smart 
young  chap,  a  colonel  in  the  army,  and 
a  very  intelligent  man. 

"  I  explained  that  I  had  been  robbed 
in  a  French  railway  carriage  of  a  dia 
mond  necklace  belonging  to  the  Queen 
of  England,  which  her  Majesty  was 
sending  as  a  present  to  the  Czarina  of 
96 


"/  Uireiu  everything  in  the  dressing-case  out  on  the 
floor." 


IN    T  H  E    F  O  O 


Russia.  I  pointed  out  to  him  that  if 
he  succeeded  in  capturing  the  thief  he 
would  be  made  for  life,  and  would 
receive  the  gratitude  of  three  great 
powers. 

"  He  was  n't  the  sort  that  thinks 
second  thoughts  are  best.  He  saw 
Russian  and  French  decorations  sprout 
ing  all  over  his  chest,  and  he  hit  a  bell, 
and  pressed  buttons,  and  yelled  out 
orders  like  the  captain  of  a  penny 
steamer  in  a  fog.  He  sent  her  descrip 
tion  to  all  the  city  gates,  and  ordered 
all  cabmen  and  railway  porters  to 
search  all  trains  leaving  Marseilles. 
He  ordered  all  passengers  on  outgoing 
vessels  to  be  examined,  and  telegraphed 
the  proprietors  of  every  hotel  and  pen 
sion  to  send  him  a  complete  list  of 
their  guests  within  the  hour.  While  I 
was  standing  there  he  must  have  given 
at  least  a  hundred  orders,  and  sent  out 
enough  commissaires,  sergeants  de  ville, 
97 


IN    THE    FOG 


gendarmes,  bicycle  police,  and  plain- 
clothes  Johnnies  to  have  captured  the 
entire  German  army.  When  they  had 
gone  he  assured  me  that  the  woman 
was  as  good  as  arrested  already.  In 
deed,  officially,  she  was  arrested;  for 
she  had  no  more  chance  of  escape  from 
Marseilles  than  from  the  Chateau  D'If. 

"  He  told  me  to  return  to  my  hotel 
and  possess  my  soul  in  peace.  Within 
an  hour  he  assured  me  he  would  ac 
quaint  me  with  her  arrest. 

"I  thanked  him,  and  complimented 
him  on  his  energy,  and  left  him.  But 
I  did  n't  share  in  his  confidence.  I  felt 
that  she  was  a  very  clever  woman,  and 
a  match  for  any  and  all  of  us.  It  was 
all  very  well  for  him  to  be  jubilant. 
He  had  not  lost  the  diamonds,  and  had 
everything  to  gain  if  he  found  them; 
while  I,  even  if  he  did  recover  the 
necklace,  would  only  be  where  I  was 
before  I  lost  them,  and  if  he  did  not 
98 


IN    THE    FOG 


recover  it  I  was  a  ruined  man.  It  was 
an  awful  facer  for  me.  I  had  always 
prided  myself  on  my  record.  In  eleven 
years  I  had  never  mislaid  an  envelope, 
nor  missed  taking  the  first  train.  And 
now  I  had  failed  in  the  most  important 
mission  that  had  ever  been  intrusted  to 
me.  And  it  was  n't  a  thing  that  could 
be  hushed  up,  either.  It  was  too  con 
spicuous,  too  spectacular.  It  was  sure 
to  invite  the  widest  notoriety.  I  saw 
myself  ridiculed  all  over  the  Continent, 
and  perhaps  dismissed,  even  suspected 
of  having  taken  the  thing  myself. 

"  I  was  walking  in  front  of  a  lighted 
cafe,  and  I  felt  so  sick  and  miserable 
that  I  stopped  for  a  pick-me-up.  Then 
I  considered  that  if  I  took  one  drink  I 
would  probably,  in  my  present  state  of 
mind,  not  want  to  stop  under  twenty, 
and  I  decided  I  had  better  leave  it 
alone.  But  my  nerves  were  jumping 
like  a  frightened  rabbit,  and  I  felt  I 
99 


IN    THE    FOG 


must  have  something  to  quiet  them,  or 
I  would  go  crazy.  I  reached  for  my 
cigarette-case,  but  a  cigarette  seemed 
hardly  adequate,  so  I  put  it  back  again 
and  took  out  this  cigar-case,  in  which  I 
keep  only  the  strongest  and  blackest 
cigars.  I  opened  it  and  stuck  in  my 
fingers,  but  instead  of  a  cigar  they 
touched  on  a  thin  leather  envelope. 
My  heart  stood  perfectly  still.  I  did 
not  dare  to  look,  but  I  dug  my  finger 
nails  into  the  leather  and  I  felt  layers 
of  thin  paper,  then  a  layer  of  cotton, 
and  then  they  scratched  on  the  facets 
of  the  Czarina's  diamonds! 

"  I  stumbled  as  though  I  had  been 
hit  in  the  face,  and  fell  back  into  one 
of  the  chairs  on  the  sidewalk.  I  tore 
off  the  wrappings  and  spread  out  the 
diamonds  on  the  cafe  table;  I  could 
not  believe  they  were  real.  I  twisted 
the  necklace  between  my  fingers  and 
crushed  it  between  my  palms  and 
100 


IN    THE    FOG 


tossed  it  up  in  the  air.  I  believe  I 
almost  kissed  it.  The  women  in  the 
cafe  stood  up  on  the  chairs  to  see  bet 
ter,  and  laughed  and  screamed,  and  the 
people  crowded  so  close  around  me 
that  the  waiters  had  to  form  a  body 
guard.  The  proprietor  thought  there 
was  a  fight,  and  called  for  the  police. 
I  was  so  happy  I  didn't  care.  I 
laughed,  too,  and  gave  the  proprietor  a 
five-pound  note,  and  told  him  to  stand 
every  one  a  drink.  Then  I  tumbled 
into  a  fiacre  and  galloped  off  to  my 
friend  the  Chief  of  Police.  I  felt  very 
sorry  for  him.  He  had  been  so  happy 
at  the  chance  I  gave  him,  and  he 
was  sure  to  be  disappointed  when  he 
learned  I  had  sent  him  off  on  a  false 
alarm. 

"  But  now  that  I   had    found    the 
necklace,  I  did  not  want  him  to  find 
the  woman.     Indeed,  I  was  most  anx 
ious  that  she  should  get  clear  away, 
101 


IN    THE    FOG 


for  if  she  were  caught  the  truth  would 
come  out,  and  I  was  likely  to  get 
a  sharp  reprimand,  and  sure  to  be 
laughed  at. 

"  I  could  see  now  how  it  had  hap 
pened.  In  my  haste  to  hide  the  dia 
monds  when  the  woman  was  hustled 
into  the  carriage,  I  had  shoved  the 
cigars  into  the  satchel,  and  the  dia 
monds  into  the  pocket  of  my  coat. 
Now  that  I  had  the  diamonds  safe  again, 
it  seemed  a  very  natural  mistake.  But 
I  doubted  if  the  Foreign  Office  would 
think  so.  I  was  afraid  it  might  not 
appreciate  the  beautiful  simplicity  of 
my  secret  hiding-place.  So,  when  I 
reached  the  police  station,  and  found 
that  the  woman  was  still  at  large,  I 
was  more  than  relieved. 

"  As  I  expected,  the  Chief  was  ex 
tremely  chagrined  when  he  learned  of 
my  mistake,  and  that  there  was  nothing 
for  him  to  do.  But  I  was  feeling  so 
102 


IN    THE    FOG 


happy  myself  that  I  hated  to  have  any 
one  else  miserable,  so  I  suggested  that 
this  attempt  to  steal  the  Czarina's 
necklace  might  be  only  the  first  of  a 
series  of  such  attempts  by  an  unscru 
pulous  gang,  and  that  I  might  still  be 
in  danger. 

"  I  winked  at  the  Chief  and  the  Chief 
smiled  at  me,  and  we  went  to  Nice 
together  in  a  saloon  car  with  a  guard 
of  twelve  carabineers  and  twelve  plain- 
clothes  men,  and  the  Chief  and  I  drank 
champagne  all  the  way.  We  marched 
together  up  to  the  hotel  where  the  Rus 
sian  Ambassador  was  stopping,  closely 
surrounded  by  our  escort  of  carabi 
neers,  and  delivered  the  necklace  with 
the  most  profound  ceremony.  The  old 
Ambassador  was  immensely  impressed, 
and  when  we  hinted  that  already  I  had 
been  made  the  object  of  an  attack  by 
robbers,  he  assured  us  that  his  Imperial 
Majesty  would  not  prove  ungrateful. 
103 


IN    THE    FOG 


"  I  wrote  a  swinging  personal  letter 
about  the  invaluable  services  of  the 
Chief  to  the  French  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  and  they  gave  him  enough 
Russian  and  French  medals  to  satisfy 
even  a  French  soldier.  So,  though  he 
never  caught  the  woman,  he  received 
his  just  reward." 

The  Queen's  Messenger  paused  and 
surveyed  the  faces  of  those  about  him 
in  some  embarrassment. 

"But  the  worst  of  it  is,"  he  added, 
"  that  the  story  must  have  got  about ; 
for,  while  the  Princess  obtained  noth 
ing  from  me  but  a  cigar-case  and  five 
excellent  cigars,  a  few  weeks  after  the 
coronation  the  Czar  sent  me  a  gold 
cigar-case  with  his  monogram  in  dia 
monds.  And  I  don't  know  yet  whether 
that  was  a  coincidence,  or  whether  the 
Czar  wanted  me  to  know  that  he  knew 
that  I  had  been  carrying  the  Czarina's 
diamonds  in  my  pigskin  cigar-case. 
What  do  you  fellows  think?  " 
104 


CHAPTER  III 

gIR  ANDREW  rose  with  disapproval 
written  in  every  lineament. 

"I  thought  your  story  would  bear 
upon  the  murder,"  he  said.  "  Had  I 
imagined  it  would  have  nothing  what 
soever  to  do  with  it  I  would  not  have 
remained."  He  pushed  back  his  chair 
and  bowed  stiffly.  "I  wish  you  good 
night,"  he  said. 

There  was  a  chorus  of  remonstrance, 
and  under  cover  of  this  and  the  Baro 
net's  answering  protests  a  servant  for 
the  second  time  slipped  a  piece  of 
paper  into  the  hand  of  the  gentleman 
with  the  pearl  stud.  He  read  the  lines 
written  upon  it  and  tore  it  into  tiny 
fragments. 

The  youngest  member,  who  had  re- 
105 


IN    THE    FOG 


mained  an  interested  but  silent  listener 
to  the  tale  of  the  Queen's  Messenger, 
raised  his  hand  commandingly. 

"  Sir  Andrew/'  he  cried,  "  in  justice 
to  Lord  Arthur  Chetney  I  must  ask 
you  to  be  seated.  He  has  been  accused 
in  our  hearing  of  a  most  serious 
crime,  and  I  insist  that  you  remain 
until  you  have  heard  me  clear  his 
character." 

"  You !  "  cried  the  Baronet. 

"Yes,"  answered  the  young  man 
briskly.  "  I  would  have  spoken  sooner," 
he  explained,  "  but  that  I  thought  this 
gentleman  "  —  he  inclined  his  head 
toward  the  Queen's  Messenger  —  "was 
about  to  contribute  some  facts  of  which 
I  was  ignorant.  He,  however,  has  told 
us  nothing,  and  so  I  will  take  up  the 
tale  at  the  point  where  Lieutenant 
Sears  laid  it  down  and  give  you  those 
details  of  which  Lieutenant  Sears  is 
ignorant.  It  seems  strange  to  you  that 
106 


IN    THE    FOG 


I  should  be  able  to  add  the  sequel 
to  this  story.  But  the  coincidence  is 
easily  explained.  I  am  the  junior  mem 
ber  of  the  law  firm  of  Chudleigh  & 
Chudleigh.  We  have  been  solicitors 
for  the  Chetneys  for  the  last  two 
hundred  years.  Nothing,  no  matter 
how  unimportant,  which  concerns  Lord 
Edam  and  his  two  sons  is  unknown  to 
us,  and  naturally  we  are  acquainted 
with  every  detail  of  the  terrible  catas 
trophe  of  last  night. " 

The  Baronet,  bewildered  but  eager, 
sank  back  into  his  chair. 

"Will  you  be  long,  sir?"  he  de 
manded. 

"I  shall  endeavor  to  be  brief/'  said 
the  young  solicitor;  "and,"  he  added, 
in  a  tone  which  gave  his  words  almost 
the  weight  of  a  threat,  "  I  promise  to 
be  interesting.77 

"  There  is  no  need  to  promise  that," 
said  Sir  Andrew,  "  I  find  it  much  too 
107 


IN    THE    FOG 


interesting  as  it  is."  He  glanced  rue 
fully  at  the  clock  and  turned  his  eyes 
quickly  from  it. 

"  Tell  the  driver  of  that  hansom,"  he 
called  to  the  servant,  "  that  I  take  him 
by  the  hour." 

"  For  the  last  three  days,"  began 
young  Mr.  Chudleigh,  "  as  you  have 
probably  read  in  the  daily  papers,  the 
Marquis  of  Edam  has  been  at  the  point 
of  death,  and  his  physicians  have  never 
left  his  house.  Every  hour  he  seemed 
to  grow  weaker;  but  although  his 
bodily  strength  is  apparently  leaving 
him  forever,  his  mind  has  remained  clear 
and  active.  Late  yesterday  evening 
word  was  received  at  our  office  that  he 
wished  my  father  to  come  at  once  to 
Chetney  House  and  to  bring  with  him 
certain  papers.  What  these  papers  were 
is  not  essential ;  I  mention  them  only 
to  explain  how  it  was  that  last  night  I 
happened  to  be  at  Lord  Edam's  bed- 
108 


IN    THE    F  0  0 


side.  I  accompanied  my  father  to 
Chetney  House,  but  at  the  time  we 
reached  there  Lord  Edam  was  sleeping, 
and  his  physicians  refused  to  have  him 
awakened.  My  father  urged  that  he 
should  be  allowed  to  receive  Lord 
Edam's  instructions  concerning  the 
documents,  but  the  physicians  would 
not  disturb  him,  and  we  all  gathered 
in  the  library  to  wait  until  he  should 
awake  of  his  own  accord.  It  was  about 
one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  while  we 
were  still  there,  that  Inspector  Lyle 
and  the  officers  from  Scotland  Yard 
came  to  arrest  Lord  Arthur  on  the 
charge  of  murdering  his  brother.  You 
can  imagine  our  dismay  and  distress. 
Like  every  one  else,  I  had  learned  from 
the  afternoon  papers  that  Lord  Chet 
ney  was  not  dead,  but  that  he  had  re 
turned  to  England,  and  on  arriving  at 
Chetney  House  I  had  been  told  that 
Lord  Arthur  had  gone  to  the  Bath 
109 


IN    THE    FOG 


Hotel  to  look  for  his  brother  and  to 
inform  him  that  if  he  wished  to  see 
their  father  alive  he  must  come  to  him 
at  once.  Although  it  was  now  past 
one  o'clock,  Arthur  had  not  returned. 
None  of  us  knew  where  Madame  Zichy 
lived,  so  we  could  not  go  to  recover 
Lord  Chetney's  body.  We  spent  a  most 
miserable  night,  hastening  to  the  win 
dow  whenever  a  cab  came  into  the 
square,  in  the  hope  that  it  was  Arthur 
returning,  and  endeavoring  to  explain 
away  the  facts  that  pointed  to  him  as 
the  murderer.  I  am  a  friend  of  Ar 
thur's,  I  was  with  him  at  Harrow  and 
at  Oxford,  and  I  refused  to  believe  for 
an  instant  that  he  was  capable  of  such 
a  crime;  but  as  a  lawyer  I  could  not 
help  but  see  that  the  circumstantial 
evidence  was  strongly  against  him. 

"  Toward  early  morning  Lord  Edam 
awoke,  and  in  so  much  better  a  state  of 
health  that  he  refused   to  make  the 
110 


IN    THE    FOG 


changes  in  the  papers  which  he  had 
intended,  declaring  that  he  was  no 
nearer  death  than  ourselves.  Under 
other  circumstances,  this  happy  change 
in  him  would  have  relieved  us  greatly, 
but  none  of  us  could  think  of  any 
thing  save  the  death  of  his  elder  son 
and  of  the  charge  which  hung  over 
Arthur. 

"  As  long  as  Inspector  Lyle  remained 
in  the  house  my  father  decided  that  I, 
as  one  of  the  legal  advisers  of  the  fam 
ily,  should  also  remain  there.  But 
there  was  little  for  either  of  us  to  do. 
Arthur  did  not  return,  and  nothing  oc 
curred  until  late  this  morning,  when 
Lyle  received  word  that  the  Russian 
servant  had  been  arrested.  He  at  once 
drove  to  Scotland  Yard  to  question 
him.  He  came  back  to  us  in  an  hour, 
and  informed  me  that  the  servant  had 
refused  to  tell  anything  of  what  had 
happened  the  night  before,  or  of  him- 
111 


IN    THE    FOG 


self,  or  of  the  Princess  Zichy.  He 
would  not  even  give  them  the  address 
of  her  house. 

"  *  He  is  in  abject  terror/  Lyle  said. 
'I  assured  him  that  he  was  not  sus 
pected  of  the  crime,  but  he  would  tell 
me  nothing/ 

"  There  were  no  other  developments 
until  two  o'  clock  this  afternoon,  when 
word  was  brought  to  us  that  Arthur  had 
been  found,  and  that  he  was  lying  in  the 
accident  ward  of  St.  Greorge's  Hospital. 
Lyle  and  I  drove  there  together,  and 
found  him  propped  up  in  bed  with  his 
head  bound  in  a  bandage.  He  had 
been  brought  to  the  hospital  the  night 
before  by  the  driver  of  a  hansom  that 
had  run  over  him  in  the  fog.  The  cab- 
horse  had  kicked  him  on  the  head,  and 
he  had  been  carried  in  unconscious. 
There  was  nothing  on  him  to  tell  who 
he  was,  and  it  was  not  until  he  came 
to  his  senses  this  afternoon  that  the 
112 


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A^S-^v*-     *  ^  * 


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I 

k 

^ 


>s 
s 
s 

•a, 


THE    FOG 


hospital  authorities  had  been  able  to 
send  word  to  his  people.  Lyle  at  once 
informed  him  that  he  was  under  arrest, 
and  with  what  he  was  charged,  and 
though  the  inspector  warned  him  to 
say  nothing  which  might  be  used 
against  him,  I,  as  his  solicitor,  in 
structed  him  to  speak  freely  and  to  tell 
us  all  he  knew  of  the  occurrences  of 
last  night.  It  was  evident  to  any  one 
that  the  fact  of  his  brother's  death  was 
of  much  greater  concern  to  him,  than 
that  he  was  accused  of  his  murder. 

" '  That/  Arthur  said  contemptuously, 
1  that  is  damned  nonsense.  It  is  mon 
strous  and  cruel.  We  parted  better 
friends  than  we  have  been  in  years.  I 
will  tell  you  all  that  happened  —  not 
to  clear  myself,  but  to  help  you  to  find 
out  the  truth.'  His  story  is  as  follows: 
Yesterday  afternoon,  owing  to  his  con 
stant  attendance  on  his  father,  he  did 
not  look  at  the  evening  papers,  and  it 
113 


IN    THE    FOG 


was  not  until  after  dinner,  when  the 
butler  brought  him  one  and  told  him  of 
its  contents,  that  he  learned  that  his 
brother  was  alive  and  at  the  Bath 
Hotel.  He  drove  there  at  once,  but  was 
told  that  about  eight  o'clock  his  brother 
had  gone  out,  but  without  giving  any 
clew  to  his  destination.  As  Chetney 
had  not  at  once  come  to  see  his  father, 
Arthur  decided  that  he  was  still  angry 
with  him,  and  his  mind,  turning  natu 
rally  to  the  cause  of  their  quarrel, 
determined  him  to  look  for  Chetney  at 
the  home  of  the  Princess  Zichy. 

"  Her  house  had  been  pointed  out  to 
him,  and  though  he  had  never  visited 
it,  he  had  passed  it  many  times  and 
knew  its  exact  location.  He  accord 
ingly  drove  in  that  direction,  as  far  as 
the  fog  would  permit  the  hansom  to 
go,  and  walked  the  rest  of  the  way, 
reaching  the  house  about  nine  o'clock. 
He  rang,  and  was  admitted  by  the  Rus- 


IN    THE    FOG 


sian  servant.  The  man  took  his  card 
into  the  drawing-room,  and  at  once  his 
brother  ran  out  and  welcomed  him. 
He  was  followed  by  the  Princess  Zichy, 
who  also  received  Arthur  most  cor 
dially. 

" i  You  brothers  will  have  much  to 
talk  about,'  she  said.  'I  am  going  to 
the  dining-room.  When  you  have  fin 
ished,  let  me  know.' 

"  As  soon  as  she  had  left  them,  Ar 
thur  told  his  brother  that  their  father 
was  not  expected  to  outlive  the  night, 
and  that  he  must  come  to  him  at  once. 

"  t  This  is  not  the  moment  to  remem 
ber  your  quarrel/  Arthur  said  to  him; 
1  you  have  come  back  from  the  dead 
only  in  time  to  make  your  peace  with 
him  before  he  dies/ 

"Arthur  says  that  at  this  Chetney 
was  greatly  moved. 

" '  You  entirely  misunderstand  me,  Ar 
thur,'  he  returned.  1 1  did  not  know  the 
115 


IN    THE    FOG 


governor  was  ill,  or  I  would  have  gone 
to  him  the  instant  I  arrived.  My  only 
reason  for  not  doing  so  was  because  I 
thought  he  was  still  angry  with  me.  I 
shall  return  with  you  immediately,  as 
soon  as  I  have  said  good-by  to  the  Prin 
cess.  It  is  a  final  good-by.  After  to 
night,  I  shall  never  see  her  again/ 

" '  Do  you  mean  that? '  Arthur  cried. 

"'Yes/  Chetney  answered.  'When 
I  returned  to  London  I  had  no  inten 
tion  of  seeking  her  again,  and  I  am 
here  only  through  a  mistake.'  He  then 
told  Arthur  that  he  had  separated  from 
the  Princess  even  before  he  went  to 
Central  Africa,  and  that,  moreover, 
while  at  Cairo  on  his  way  south,  he  had 
learned  certain  facts  concerning  her 
life  there  during  the  previou*  season, 
which  made  it  impossible  for  him  to 
ever  wish  to  see  her  again.  Their  sep 
aration  was  final  and  complete. 

" '  She  deceived  me  cruelly/  he  said; 
116 


IN    THE    FOG 


i  I  cannot  tell  you  how  cruelly.  Dur 
ing  the  two  years  when  I  was  trying  to 
obtain  my  father's  consent  to  our  mar 
riage  she  was  in  love  with  a  Russian 
diplomat.  During  all  that  time  he  was 
secretly  visiting  her  here  in  London, 
and  her  trip  to  Cairo  was  only  an 
excuse  to  meet  him  there.' 

" i  Yet  you  are  here  with  her  to 
night/  Arthur  protested,  '  only  a  few 
hours  after  your  return.' 

" '  That  is  easily  explained,'  Chetney 
answered.  l  As  I  finished  dinner  to 
night  at  the  hotel,  I  received  a  note 
from  her  from  this  address.  In  it  she 
said  she  had  but  just  learned  of  my  ar 
rival,  and  begged  me  to  come  to  her  at 
once.  She  wrote  that  she  was  in  great 
and  present  trouble,  dying  of  an  incu 
rable  illness,  and  without  friends  or 
money.  She  begged  me,  for  the  sake 
of  old  times,  to  come  to  her  assistance. 
During  the  last  two  years  in  the  jungle 
117 


IN    THE    FOG 


all  my  former  feeling  for  Zichy  has 
utterly  passed  away,  but  no  one  could 
have  dismissed  the  appeal  she  made  in 
that  letter.  So  I  came  here,  and  found 
her,  as  you  have  seen  her,  quite  as 
beautiful  as  she  ever  was,  in  very  good 
health,  and,  from  the  look  of  the  house, 
in  no  need  of  money. 

" '  I  asked  her  what  she  meant  by 
writing  me  that  she  was  dying  in  a 
garret,  and  she  laughed,  and  said  she 
had  done  so  because  she  was  afraid, 
unless  I  thought  she  needed  help,  I 
would  not  try  to  see  her.  That  was 
where  we  were  when  you  arrived. 
And  now/  Chetney  added,  i  I  will  say 
good-by  to  her,  and  you  had  better  re 
turn  home.  No,  you  can  trust  me,  I 
shall  follow  you  at  once.  She  has  no 
influence  over  me  now,  but  I  believe, 
in  spite  of  the  way  she  has  used  me, 
that  she  is,  after  her  queer  fashion,  still 
fond  of  me,  and  when  she  learns  that 
118 


IN    T  H  E    F  O  G 


this  good-by  is  final  there  may  be  a 
scene,  and  it  is  not  fair  to  her  that  you 
should  be  here.  So,  go  home  at  once, 
and  tell  the  governor  that  I  am  follow 
ing  you  in  ten  minutes.7 
?  "  '  That/  said  Arthur,  '  is  the  way  we 
parted.  I  never  left  him  on  more 
friendly  terms.  I  was  happy  to  see 
him  alive  again,  I  was  happy  to  think 
he  had  returned  in  time  to  make  up 
his  quarrel  with  my  father,  and  I  was 
happy  that  at  last  he  was  shut  of  that 
woman.  I  was  never  better  pleased 
with  him  in  my  life.'  He  turned  to 
Inspector  Lyle,  who  was  sitting  at  the 
foot  of  the  bed  taking  notes  of  all  he 
told  us. 

" '  Why  in  the  name  of  common 
sense/  he  cried,  *  should  I  have  chosen 
that  moment  of  all  others  to  send  my 
brother  back  to  the  grave? '  For  a  mo 
ment  the  Inspector  did  not  answer  him. 
I  do  not  know  if  any  of  you  gentlemen 
119 


THE    FOG 


are  acquainted  with  Inspector  Lyle,  but 
if  you  are  not,  I  can  assure  you  that  he 
is  a  very  remarkable  man.  Our  firm 
often  applies  to  him  for  aid,  and  he 
has  never  failed  us;  my  father  has 
the  greatest  possible  respect  for  him. 
Where  he  has  the  advantage  over  the 
ordinary  police  official  is  in  the  fact 
that  he  possesses  imagination.  He  im 
agines  himself  to  be  the  criminal,  im 
agines  how  he  would  act  under  the  same 
circumstances,  and  he  imagines  to  such 
purpose  that  he  generally  finds  the 
man  he  wants.  I  have  often  told  Lyle 
that  if  he  had  not  been  a  detective  he 
would  have  made  a  great  success  as  a 
poet,  or  a  playwright. 

"  When  Arthur  turned  on  him  Lyle 
hesitated  for  a  moment,  and  then  told 
him  exactly  what  was  the  case  against 
him. 

" l  Ever  since  your  brother  was  re 
ported  as  having  died  in  Africa/  he 
120 


IN    THE    FOG 


said,  'your  Lordship  has  been  collect 
ing  money  on  post  obits.  Lord  Chet- 
ney's  arrival  last  night  turned  them 
into  waste  paper.  You  were  suddenly 
in  debt  for  thousands  of  pounds  —  for 
much  more  than  you  could  ever  possibly 
pay.  No  one  knew  that  you  and  your 
brother  had  met  at  Madame  Zichy's. 
But  you  knew  that  your  father  was  not 
expected  to  outlive  the  night,  and  that 
if  your  brother  were  dead  also,  you 
would  be  saved  from  complete  ruin, 
and  that  you  would  become  the  Mar 
quis  of  Edam/ 

" '  Oh,  that  is  how  you  have  worked 
it  out,  is  it!  '  Arthur  cried.  '  And  for 
me  to  become  Lord  Edam  was  it  neces 
sary  that  the  woman  should  die,  tool  ' 

" '  They  will  say/  Lyle  answered, 
'  that  she  was  a  witness  to  the  murder 
—  that  she  would  have  told.7 

"'Then  why  did  I  not  kill  the  ser 
vant  as  well! '  Arthur  said. 
121 


IN    THE    FOG 


"  i  He  was  asleep,  and  saw  nothing/ 

"  '  And  you  believe  that?  '  Arthur  de 
manded. 

" '  It  is  not  a  question  of  what  I  be 
lieve/  Lyle  said  gravely.  l  It  is  a  ques 
tion  for  your  peers.7 

" i  The  man  is  insolent !  '  Arthur 
cried.  i  The  thing  is  monstrous !  Hor 
rible  !' 

"  Before  we  could  stop  him  he  sprang 
out  of  his  cot  and  began  pulling  on  his 
clothes.  When  the  nurses  tried  to  hold 
him  down,  he  fought  with  them. 

" '  Do  you  think  you  can  keep  me 
here/  he  shouted,  '  when  they  are  plot 
ting  to  hang  me?  I  am  going  with  you 
to  that  house!  '  he  cried  at  Lyle. 
1  When  you  find  those  bodies  I  shall  be 
beside  you.  It  is  my  right.  He  is  my 
brother.  He  has  been  murdered,  and 
I  can  tell  you  who  murdered  him. 
That  woman  murdered  him.  She  first 
ruined  his  life,  and  now  she  has  killed 
122 


IN    THE    FOG 


him.  For  the  last  five  years  she  has 
been  plotting  to  make  herself  his  wife, 
and  last  night,  when  he  told  her  he 
had  discovered  the  truth  about  the 
Russian,  and  that  she  would  never  see 
him  again,  she  flew  into  a  passion  and 
stabbed  him,  and  then,  in  terror  of  the 
gallows,  killed  herself.  She  murdered 
him,  I  tell  you,  and  I  promise  you  that 
we  will  find  the  knife  she  used  near 
her  —  perhaps  still  in  her  hand.  What 
will  you  say  to  that? ' 

"Lyle  turned  his  head  away  and 
stared  down  at  the  floor.  '  I  might 
say,7  he  answered,  '  that  you  placed  it 
there/ 

"Arthur  gave  a  cry  of  anger  and 
sprang  at  him,  and  then  pitched  for 
ward  into  his  arms.  The  blood  was 
running  from  the  cut  under  the  band 
age,  and  he  had  fainted.  Lyle  carried 
him  back  to  the  bed  again,  and  we  left 
him  with  the  police  and  the  doctors, 
123 


IN    THE    FOG 


and  drove  at  once  to  the  address  he 
had  given  us.  We  found  the  house  not 
three  minutes'  walk  from  St.  George's 
Hospital.  It  stands  in  Trevor  Terrace, 
that  little  row  of  houses  set  back  from 
Knightsbridge,  with  one  end  in  Hill 
Street. 

"As  we  left  the  hospital  Lyle  had 
said  to  me,  '  You  must  not  blame 
me  for  treating  him  as  I  did.  All  is 
fair  in  this  work,  and  if  by  angering 
that  boy  I  could  have  made  him  com 
mit  himself  I  was  right  in  trying  to  do 
so ;  though,  I  assure  you,  no  one  would 
be  better  pleased  than  myself  if  I  could 
prove  his  theory  to  be  correct.  But  we 
cannot  tell.  Everything  depends  upon 
what  we  see  for  ourselves  within  the 
next  few  minutes.' 

"  When  we  reached  the  house,  Lyle 

broke  open  the  fastenings  of  one  of  the 

windows    on    the    ground    floor,   and, 

hidden  by  the  trees  in  the  garden,  we 

124 


'  '    ,' 


IN    THE    FOG 


scrambled  in.  We  found  ourselves  in 
the  reception-room,  which  was  the  first 
room  on  the  right  of  the  hall.  The  gas 
was  still  burning  behind  the  colored 
glass  and  red  silk  shades,  and  when  the 
daylight  streamed  in  after  us  it  gave 
the  hall  a  hideously  dissipated  look, 
like  the  foyer  of  a  theatre  at  a  matinee, 
or  the  entrance  to  an  all-day  gambling 
hell.  The  house  was  oppressively  si 
lent,  and  because  we  knew  why  it  was 
so  silent  we  spoke  in  whispers.  When 
Lyle  turned  the  handle  of  the  drawing- 
room  door,  I  felt  as  though  some  one 
had  put  his  hand  upon  my  throat. 
But  I  followed  close  at  his  shoulder, 
and  saw,  in  the  subdued  light  of  many- 
tinted  lamps,  the  body  of  Chetney  at 
the  foot  of  the  divan,  just  as  Lieutenant 
Sears  had  described  it.  In  the  draw 
ing-room  we  found  the  body  of  the 
Princess  Zichy,  her  arms  thrown  out, 
and  the  blood  from  her  heart  frozen  in 
125 


IN    THE    FOG 


a  tiny  line  across  her  bare  shoulder. 
But  neither  of  us,  although  we  searched 
the  floor  on  our  hands  and  knees,  could 
find  the  weapon  which  had  killed  her. 

" '  For  Arthur's  sake,'  I  said, i  I  would 
have  given  a  thousand  pounds  if  we 
had  found  the  knife  in  her  hand,  as  he 
said  we  would.' 

" '  That  we  have  not  found  it  there/ 
Lyle  answered,  'is  to  my  mind  the 
strongest  proof  that  he  is  telling  the 
truth,  that  he  left  the  house  before 
the  murder  took  place.  He  is  not  a 
fool,  and  had  he  stabbed  his  brother 
and  this  woman,  he  would  have  seen 
that  by  placing  the  knife  near  her  he 
could  help  to  make  it  appear  as  if  she 
had  killed  Chetney  and  then  committed 
suicide.  Besides,  Lord  Arthur  insisted 
that  the  evidence  in  his  behalf  would 
be  our  finding  the  knife  here.  He 
would  not  have  urged  that  if  he  knew 
we  would  not  find  it,  if  he  knew  he 
126 


/  N    THE    FOG 


himself  had  carried  it  away.  This  is 
no  suicide.  A  suicide  does  not  rise 
and  hide  the  weapon  with  which  he 
kills  himself,  and  then  lie  down  again. 
No,  this  has  been  a  double  murder,  and 
we  must  look  outside  of  the  house  for 
the  murderer.7 

"  While  he  was  speaking  Lyle  and  I 
had  been  searching  every  corner,  study 
ing  the  details  of  each  room.  I  was  so 
afraid  that,  without  telling  me,  he 
would  make  some  deductions  prejudi 
cial  to  Arthur,  that  I  never  left  his 
side.  I  was  determined  to  see  every 
thing  that  he  saw,  and,  if  possible,  to 
prevent  his  interpreting  it  in  the  wrong 
way.  He  finally  finished  his  examina 
tion,  and  we  sat  down  together  in  the 
drawing-room,  and  he  took  out  his 
notebook  and  read  aloud  all  that  Mr. 
Sears  had  told  him  of  the  murder  and 
what  we  had  just  learned  from  Arthur. 
We  compared  the  two  accounts  word 
127 


1  N    THE    FOG 


for  word,  and  weighed  statement  with 
statement,  but  I  could  not  determine 
from  anything  Lyle  said  which  of  the 
two  versions  he  had  decided  to  believe. 

"  *  We  are  trying  to  build  a  house  of 
blocks,7  he  exclaimed,  'with  half  of 
the  blocks  missing.  We  have  been 
considering  two  theories/  he  went  on : 
'  one  that  Lord  Arthur  is  responsible 
for  both  murders,  and  the  other  that 
the  dead  woman  in  there  is  responsible 
for  one  of  them,  and  has  committed 
suicide ;  but,  until  the  Russian  servant 
is  ready  to  talk,  I  shall  refuse  to  believe 
in  the  guilt  of  either/ 

" c  What  can  you  prove  by  him? '  I 
asked.  'He  was  drunk  and  asleep. 
He  saw  nothing.7 

"  Lyle  hesitated,  and  then,  as  though 
he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  be  quite 
frank  with  me,  spoke  freely. 

"  '  I  do  not  know  that  he  was  either 
drunk  or  asleep/  he  answered.  '  Lieu- 
128 


IN    THE    FOG 


tenant  Sears  describes  him  as  a  stupid 
boor.  I  am  not  satisfied  that  he  is  not 
a  clever  actor.  What  was  his  position 
in  this  house!  What  was  his  real  duty 
here?  Suppose  it  was  not  to  guard 
this  woman,  but  to  watch  her.  Let  us 
imagine  that  it  was  not  the  woman  he 
served,  but  a  master,  and  see  where 
that  leads  us.  For  this  house  has  a 
master,  a  mysterious,  absentee  land 
lord,  who  lives  in  St.  Petersburg,  the 
unknown  Russian  who  came  between 
Chetney  and  Zichy,  and  because  of 
whom  Chetney  left  her.  He  is  the 
man  who  bought  this  house  for  Madame 
Zichy,  who  sent  these  rugs  and  curtains 
from  St.  Petersburg  to  furnish  it  for  her 
after  his  own  tastes,  and,  I  believe,  it 
was  he  also  who  placed  the  Russian 
servant  here,  ostensibly  to  serve  the 
Princess,  but  in  reality  to  spy  upon 
her.  At  Scotland  Yard  we  do  not 
know  who  this  gentleman  is ;  the  Rus- 
129 


IN    THE    FOG 


sian  police  confess  to  equal  ignorance 
concerning  Mm.  When  Lord  Chetney 
went  to  Africa,  Madame  Zichy  lived  in 
St.  Petersburg;  but  there  her  recep 
tions  and  dinners  were  so  crowded 
with  members  of  the  nobility  and  of 
the  army  and  diplomats,  that  among  so 
many  visitors  the  police  could  not  learn 
which  was  the  one  for  whom  she  most 
greatly  cared/ 

"  Lyle  pointed  at  the  modern  French 
paintings  and  the  heavy  silk  rugs  which 
hung  upon  the  walls. 

" i  The  unknown  is  a  man  of  taste  and 
of  some  fortune/  he  said,  *  not  the  sort 
of  man  to  send  a  stupid  peasant  to 
guard  the  woman  he  loves.  So  I  am 
not  content  to  believe,  with  Mr.  Sears, 
that  the  servant  is  a  boor.  I  believe 
him  instead  to  be  a  very  clever  ruffian. 
I  believe  him  to  be  the  protector  of  his 
master's  honor,  or,  let  us  say,  of  his  mas 
ter's  property,  whether  that  property 
130 


Entreating  Chetney  not  to  leave  her. 


IN    THE    FOG 


be  silver  plate  or  the  woman  his  master 
loves.  Last  night,  after  Lord  Arthur 
had  gone  away,  the  servant  was  left 
alone  in  this  house  with  Lord  Chetney 
and  Madame  Ziehy.  Prom  where  he 
sat  in  the  hall  he  could  hear  Lord 
Chetney  bidding  her  farewell;  for,  if 
my  idea  of  him  is  correct,  he  under 
stands  English  quite  as  well  as  you  or 
I.  Let  us  imagine  that  he  heard  her 
entreating  Chetney  not  to  leave  her, 
reminding  him  of  his  former  wish  to 
marry  her,  and  let  us  suppose  that  he 
hears  Chetney  denounce  her,  and  tell 
her  that  at  Cairo  he  has  learned  of  this 
Russian  admirer  —  the  servant's  mas 
ter.  He  hears  the  woman  declare  that 
she  has  had  no  admirer  but  himself, 
that  this  unknown  Russian  was,  and 
is,  nothing  to  her,  that  there  is  no  man 
she  loves  but  him,  and  that  she  cannot 
live,  knowing  that  he  is  alive,  without 
his  love.  Suppose  Chetney  believed 
131 


IN    THE    FOG 


her,  suppose  his  former  infatuation  for 
her  returned,  and  that  in  a  moment  of 
weakness  he  forgave  her  and  took  her 
in  his  arms.  That  is  the  moment  the 
Russian  master  has  feared.  It  is  to 
guard  against  it  that  he  has  placed  his 
watchdog  over  the  Princess,  and  how 
do  we  know  but  that,  when  the  mo 
ment  came,  the  watchdog  served  his 
master,  as  he  saw  his  duty,  and  killed 
them  both?  What  do  you  think? ' 
Lyle  demanded.  i  Would  not  that  ex 
plain  both  murders?  J 

"  I  was  only  too  willing  to  hear  any 
theory  which  pointed  to  any  one  else 
as  the  criminal  than  Arthur,  but  Lyle's 
explanation  was  too  utterly  fantastic. 
I  told  him  that  he  certainly  showed 
imagination,  but  that  he  could  not 
hang  a  man  for  what  he  imagined  he 
had  done. 

"  '  No,'  Lyle  answered,  '  but  I  can 
frighten  him  by  telling  him  what  I 
132 


IN    THE    FOG 


think  he  has  done,  and  now  when  I 
again  question  the  Russian  servant 
I  will  make  it  quite  clear  to  him  that  I 
believe  he  is  the  murderer.  I  think 
that  will  open  his  mouth.  A  man  will 
at  least  talk  to  defend  himself.  Come/ 
he  said,  'we  must  return  at  once  to 
Scotland  Yard  and  see  him.  There  is 
nothing  more  to  do  here.' 

"  He  arose,  and  I  followed  him  into 
the  hall,  and  in  another  minute  we 
would  have  been  on  our  way  to  Scot 
land  Yard.  But  just  as  he  opened  the 
street  door  a  postman  halted  at  the 
gate  of  the  garden,  and  began  fumbling 
with  the  latch. 

"  Lyle  stopped,  with  an  exclamation 
of  chagrin. 

"  '  How  stupid  of  me !  '  he  exclaimed. 
He  turned  quickly  and  pointed  to  a 
narrow  slit  cut  in  the  brass  plate  of  the 
front  door.  '  The  house  has  a  private 
letter-box/  he  said,  '  and  I  had  not 
133 


IN    THE    FOG 


thought  to  look  in  it !  If  we  had  gone 
out  as  we  came  in,  by  the  window,  I 
would  never  have  seen  it.  The  mo 
ment  I  entered  the  house  I  should  have 
thought  of  securing  the  letters  which 
came  this  morning.  I  have  been  grossly 
careless.7  He  stepped  back  into  the 
hall  and  pulled  at  the  lid  of  the  letter 
box,  which  hung  on  the  inside  of  the 
door,  but  it  was  tightly  locked.  At  the 
same  moment  the  postman  came  up 
the  steps  holding  a  letter.  Without  a 
word  Lyle  took  it  from  his  hand  and 
began  to  examine  it.  It  was  addressed 
to  the  Princess  Zichy,  and  on  the  back 
of  the  envelope  was  the  name  of  a 
West  End  dressmaker. 

"'That  is  of  no  use  to  me/  Lyle 
said.  He  took  out  his  card  and  showed 
it  to  the  postman.  1 1  am  Inspector 
Lyle  from  Scotland  Yard/  he  said. 
'  The  people  in  this  house  are  under 
arrest.  Everything  it  contains  is  now 
134 


IN    THE    FOG 


in  my  keeping.    Did  you  deliver  any 
other  letters  here  this  morning? ' 

"  The  man  looked  frightened,  but 
answered  promptly  that  he  was  now 
upon  his  third  round.  He  had  made 
one  postal  delivery  at  seven  that  morn 
ing  and  another  at  eleven. 

" '  How  many  letters  did  you  leave 
here!  '  Lyle  asked. 

"'  About  six  altogether/  the  man 
answered. 

" i  Did  you  put  them  through  the 
door  into  the  letter-box!  ' 

"  The  postman  said,  '  Yes,  I  always 
slip  them  into  the  box,  and  ring  and  go 
away.  The  servants  collect  them  from 
the  inside.7 

"  l  Have  you  noticed  if  any  of  the 
letters  you  leave  here  bear  a  Russian 
postage  stamp!  '  Lyle  asked. 

"  The  man  answered,  i  Oh,  yes,  sir, 
a  great  many.7 

" l  From  the  same  person,  would  you 
say!' 

135 


IN    THE    FOG 


II  I 


The  writing  seems  to  be  the  same/ 
the  man  answered.  i  They  come  reg 
ularly  about  once  a  week  —  one  of 
those  I  delivered  this  morning  had  a 
Russian  postmark.' 

" '  That  will  do/  said  Lyle  eagerly. 
1  Thank  you,  thank  you  very  much.' 

"He  ran  back  into  the  hall,  and, 
pulling  out  his  penknife,  began  to  pick 
at  the  lock  of  the  letter-box. 

"'I  have  been  supremely  careless/ 
he  said  in  great  excitement.  '  Twice 
before  when  people  I  wanted  had  flown 
from  a  house  I  have  been  able  to  fol 
low  them  by  putting  a  guard  over  their 
mail-box.  These  letters,  which  arrive 
regularly  every  week  from  Russia  in 
the  same  handwriting,  they  can  come 
but  from  one  person.  At  least,  we  shall 
now  know  the  name  of  the  master  of 
this  house.  Undoubtedly  it  is  one  of 
his  letters  that  the  man  placed  here 
this  morning.  We  may  make  a  most 
important  discovery.' 
136 


IN    THE    FOG 


"  As  he  was  talking  he  was  picking 
at  the  lock  with  his  knife,  but  he  was 
so  impatient  to  reach  the  letters  that 
he  pressed  too  heavily  on  the  blade  and 
it  broke  in  his  hand.  I  took  a  step 
backward  and  drove  my  heel  into  the 
lock,  and  burst  it  open.  The  lid  flew 
back,  and  we  pressed  forward,  and 
each  ran  his  hand  down  into  the  letter 
box.  For  a  moment  we  were  both  too 
startled  to  move.  The  box  was  empty. 

"  I  do  not  know  how  long  we  stood 
staring  stupidly  at  each  other,  but  it 
was  Lyle  who  was  the  first  to  recover. 
He  seized  me  by  the  arm  and  pointed 
excitedly  into  the  empty  box. 

" l  Do  you  appreciate  what  that 
means?7  he  cried.  'It  means  that 
some  one  has  been  here  ahead  of  us. 
Some  one  has  entered  this  house  not 
three  hours  before  we  came,  since 
eleven  o' clock  this  morning.' 

"  'It  was  the  Russian  servant!  '  I  ex 
claimed. 

137 


IN    T  H  E    F  O  G 


" l  The  Russian  servant  has  been 
under  arrest  at  Scotland  Yard/  Lyle 
cried.  'He  could  not  have  taken  the 
letters.  Lord  Arthur  has  been  in  his 
cot  at  the  hospital.  That  is  his  alibi. 
There  is  some  one  else,  some  one  we 
do  not  suspect,  and  that  some  one  is 
the  murderer.  He  came  back  here 
either  to  obtain  those  letters  because 
he  knew  they  would  convict  him,  or  to 
remove  something  he  had  left  here  at 
the  time  of  the  murder,  something  in 
criminating, —  the  weapon,  perhaps,  or 
some  personal  article ;  a  cigarette-case, 
a  handkerchief  with  his  name 'upon  it, 
or  a  pair  of  gloves.  Whatever  it  was 
it  must  have  been  damning  evidence 
against  him  to  have  made  him  take  so 
desperate  a  chance.' 

"'How  do  we  know/  I  whispered, 
6  that  he  is  not  hidden  here  now  I ' 

" '  No,  1 11  swear  he  is  not/  Lyle 
answered.  'I  may  have  bungled  in 
138 


IN    THE    FOG 


some  things,  but  I  have  searched  this 
house  thoroughly.  Nevertheless/  he 
added,  '  we  must  go  over  it  again,  from 
the  cellar  to  the  roof.  We  have  the 
real  clew  now,  and  we  must  forget  the 
others  and  work  only  it.7  As  he  spoke 
he  began  again  to  search  the  drawing- 
room,  turning  over  even  the  books  on 
the  tables  and  the  music  on  the  piano. 
" '  Whoever  the  man  is/  he  said  over 
his  shoulder,  '  we  know  that  he  has 
a  key  to  the  front  door  and  a  key  to 
the  letter-box.  That  shows  us  he  is 
either  an  inmate  of  the  house  or  that 
he  comes  here  when  he  wishes.  The 
Russian  says  that  he  was  the  only  ser 
vant  in  the  house.  Certainly  we  have 
found  no  evidence  to  show  that  any 
other  servant  slept  here.  There  could 
be  but  one  other  person  who  would 
possess  a  key  to  the  house  and  the 
letter-box  —  and  he  lives  in  St.  Peters 
burg.  At  the  time  of  the  murder  he 
139 


THE    FOG 


was  two  thousand  miles  away/  Lyle 
interrupted  himself  suddenly  with  a 
sharp  cry  and  turned  upon  me  with  his 
eyes  flashing.  '  But  was  he?  '  he  cried. 
4  Was  he?  How  do  we  know  that  last 
night  he  was  not  in  London,  in  this 
very  house  when  Zichy  and  Chetney 
met! ' 

"  He  stood  staring  at  me  without  see 
ing  me,  muttering,  and  arguing  with 
himself. 

"  '  Don't  speak  to  me,'  he  cried,  as  I 
ventured  to  interrupt  him.  1 1  can  see 
it  now.  It  is  all  plain.  It  was  not  the 
servant,  but  his  master,  the  Russian 
himself,  and  it  was  he  who  came  back 
for  the  letters!  He  came  back  for 
them  because  he  knew  they  would  con 
vict  him.  We  must  find  them.  We 
must  have  those  letters.  If  we  find 
the  one  with  the  Russian  postmark,  we 
shall  have  found  the  murderer.'  He 
spoke  like  a  madman,  and  as  he  spoke 
140 


IN    THE    FOG 


he  ran  around  the  room  with  one  hand 
held  out  in  front  of  him  as  you  have 
seen  a  mind-reader  at  a  theatre  seeking 
for  something  hidden  in  the  stalls.  He 
pulled  the  old  letters  from  the  writing- 
desk,  and  ran  them  over  as  swiftly  as  a 
gambler  deals  out  cards;  he  dropped 
on  his  knees  before  the  fireplace  and 
dragged  out  the  dead  coals  with  his 
bare  fingers,  and  then  with  a  low,  wor 
ried  cry,  like  a  hound  on  a  scent,  he 
ran  back  to  the  waste-paper  basket  and, 
lifting  the  papers  from  it,  shook  them 
out  upon  the  floor.  Instantly  he  gave 
a  shout  of  triumph,  and,  separating  a 
number  of  torn  pieces  from  the  others, 
held  them  up  before  me. 

"'Look!'  he  cried.  'Do  you  seel 
Here  are  five  letters,  torn  across  in  two 
places.  The  Russian  did  not  stop  to 
read  them,  for,  as  you  see,  he  has  left 
them  still  sealed.  I  have  been  wrong. 
He  did  not  return  for  the  letters.  He 
141 


IN    THE    FOG 


could  not  have  known  their  value.  He 
must  have  returned  for  some  other 
reason,  and,  as  he  was  leaving,  saw 
the  letter-box,  and  taking  out  the  let 
ters,  held  them  together  —  so  —  and 
tore  them  twice  across,  and  then,  as 
the  fire  had  gone  out,  tossed  them  into 
this  basket.  Look !  '  he  cried,  '  here  in 
the  upper  corner  of  this  piece  is  a 
Russian  stamp.  This  is  his  own  letter 
—  unopened ! ' 

"We  examined  the  Russian  stamp 
and  found  it  had  been  cancelled  in  St. 
Petersburg  four  days  ago.  The  back 
of  the  envelope  bore  the  postmark  of 
the  branch  station  in  upper  Sloane 
Street,  and  was  dated  this  morning. 
The  envelope  was  of  official  blue  paper 
and  we  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  the 
two  other  parts  of  it.  We  drew  the 
torn  pieces  of  the  letter  from  them 
and  joined  them  together  side  by  side. 
There  were  but  two  lines  of  writing, 
142 


IN    THE    FOG 


and  this  was  the  message:  'I  leave 
Petersburg  on  the  night  train,  and  I 
shall  see  you  at  Trevor  Terrace  after 
dinner  Monday  evening/ 

"  *  That  was  last  night !  7  Lyle  cried. 
'  He  arrived  twelve  hours  ahead  of  his 
letter — but  it  came  in  time  —  it  came 
in  time  to  hang  him !  '  " 

The  Baronet  struck  the  table  with 
his  hand. 

"  The  name!  "  he  demanded.  "  How 
was  it  signed?  What  was  the  man's 
name? " 

The  young  Solicitor  rose  to  his  feet 
and,  leaning  forward,  stretched  out  his 
arm.  "  There  was  no  name/'  he  cried. 
"  The  letter  was  signed  with  only  two 
initials.  But  engraved  at  the  top  of 
the  sheet  was  the  man's  address.  That 
address  was  t  THE  AMERICAN  EMBASSY, 
ST.  PETERSBURG,  BUREAU  OF  THE  NAVAL 
ATTACHE/  and  the  initials/'  he  shouted, 
his  voice  rising  into  an  exultant  and 
143 


IN    THE    FOG 


bitter  cry,  "  were  those  of  the  gentle 
man  who  sits  opposite  who  told  us  that 
he  was  the  first  to  find  the  murdered 
bodies,  the  Naval  Attach^  to  Kussia, 
Lieutenant  Sears!  " 

A  strained  and  awful  hush  followed 
the  Solicitor's  words,  which  seemed  to 
vibrate  like  a  twanging  bowstring  that 
had  just  hurled  its  bolt.  Sir  Andrew, 
pale  and  staring,  drew  away  with  an 
exclamation  of  repulsion.  His  eyes 
were  fastened  upon  the  Naval  Attach^ 
with  fascinated  horror.  But  the  Amer 
ican  emitted  a  sigh  of  great  content, 
and  sank  comfortably  into  the  arms 
of  his  chair.  He  clapped  his  hands 
softly  together. 

"  Capital !  "  he  murmured.  "  I  give 
you  my  word  I  never  guessed  what  you 
were  driving  at.  You  fooled  me,  I'll 
be  hanged  if  you  did  n't  —  you  certainly 
fooled  me." 

The  man  with  the  pearl  stud  leaned 
144 


IN    THE    FOG 


forward  with  a  nervous  gesture. 
"  Hush !  be  careful !  "  he  whispered. 
But  at  that  instant,  for  the  third  time, 
a  servant,  hastening  through  the  room, 
handed  him  a  piece  of  paper  which  he 
scanned  eagerly.  The  message  on  the 
paper  read,  "  The  light  over  the  Com 
mons  is  out.  The  House  has  risen." 

The  man  with  the  black  pearl  gave  a 
mighty  shout,  and  tossed  the  paper 
from  him  upon  the  table. 

"Hurrah!  "  he  cried.  "The  House 
is  up!  We  Ve  won!  "  He  caught  up 
his  glass,  and  slapped  the  Naval  At 
tach^  violently  upon  the  shoulder.  He 
nodded  joyously  at  him,  at  the  So 
licitor,  and  at  the  Queen's  Messenger. 
"  Gentlemen,  to  you!  "  he  cried;  "  my 
thanks  and  my  congratulations!  "  He 
drank  deep  from  the  glass,  and 
breathed  forth  a  long  sigh  of  satisfac 
tion  and  relief. 

"But  I  say,"  protested  the  Queen's 
145 


IN    THE    FOG 


Messenger,  shaking  his  finger  violently 
at  the  Solicitor,  "  that  story  won't  do. 
You  did  n't  play  fair  —  and  —  and  you 
talked  so  fast  I  could  n't  make  out  what 
it  was  all  about.  I  '11  bet  you  that 
evidence  wouldn't  hold  in  a  court  of 
law  —  you  could  n't  hang  a  cat  on  such 
evidence.  Your  story  is  condemned 
tommy-rot.  Now  my  story  might  have 
happened,  my  story  bore  the  mark  — ' ' 

In  the  joy  of  creation  the  story-tellers 
had  forgotten  their  audience,  until  a 
sudden  exclamation  from  Sir  Andrew 
caused  them  to  turn  guiltily  toward 
him.  His  face  was  knit  with  lines  of 
anger,  doubt,  and  amazement. 

"  What  does  this  mean!  "  he  cried. 
"Is  this  a  jest,  or  are  you  mad?  If 
you  know  this  man  is  a  murderer,  why 
is  he  at  large?  Is  this  a  game  you 
have  been  playing?  Explain  your 
selves  at  once.  What  does  it  mean?  " 

The  American,  with  first  a  glance 

146 


IN    T  H  E    F  0  G 


at  the  others,  rose    and  bowed  cour 
teously. 

"  I  am  not  a  murderer,  Sir  Andrew, 
believe  me,"  he  said;  " you  need  not  be 
alarmed.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  at  this 
moment  I  am  much  more  afraid  of  you 
than  you  could  possibly  be  of  me.  I 
beg  you  please  to  be  indulgent.  I  as 
sure  you,  we  meant  no  disrespect.  We 
have  been  matching  stories,  that  is  all, 
pretending  that  we  are  people  we  are 
not,  endeavoring  to  entertain  you  with 
better  detective  tales  than,  for  instance, 
the  last  one  you  read, t  The  Great  Rand 
Robbery.'  " 

The  Baronet  brushed  his  hand  ner 
vously  across  his  forehead. 

"Do  you  mean  to  tell  me,"  he  ex 
claimed,  "that  none  of  this  has  hap 
pened!  That  Lord  Chetney  is  not  dead, 
that  his  Solicitor  did  not  find  a  letter  of 
yours  written  from  your  post  in  Peters 
burg,  and  that  just  now,  when  he  charged 
you  with  murder,  he  was  in  jest?  " 
147 


IN    THE    FOG 


"I  am  really  very  sorry, "  said  the 
American,  "  but  you  see,  sir,  he  could 
not  have  found  a  letter  written  by  me 
in  St.  Petersburg  because  I  have  never 
been  in  Petersburg.  Until  this  week, 
I  have  never  been  outside  of  my  own 
country.  I  am  not  a  naval  officer.  I 
am  a  writer  of  short  stories.  And  to 
night,  when  this  gentleman  told  me 
that  you  were  fond  of  detective  stories, 
I  thought  it  would  be  amusing  to  tell 
you  one  of  my  own  —  one  I  had  just 
mapped  out  this  afternoon." 

"  But  Lord  Chetney  is  a  real  person," 
interrupted  the  Baronet,  "and  he  did 
go  to  Africa  two  years  ago,  and  he  was 
supposed  to  have  died  there,  and  his 
brother,  Lord  Arthur,  has  been  the 
heir.  And  yesterday  Chetney  did  re 
turn.  I  read  it  in  the  papers." 

"So  did  I,"  assented  the  American 
soothingly;  "  and  it  struck  me  as  being 
a  very  good  plot  for  a  story.  I  mean 
148 


IN    THE    FOG 


his  unexpected  return  from  the  dead, 
and  the  probable  disappointment  of  the 
younger  brother.  So  I  decided  that  the 
younger  brother  had  better  murder  the 
older  one.  The  Princess  Zichy  I  in 
vented  out  of  a  clear  sky.  The  fog 
I  did  not  have  to  invent.  Since  last 
night  I  know  all  that  there  is  to  know 
about  a  London  fog.  I  was  lost  in  one 
for  three  hours. " 

The  Baronet  turned  grimly  upon  the 
Queen's  Messenger. 

"But  this  gentleman,"  he  protested, 
"  he  is  not  a  writer  of  short  stories ;  he 
is  a  member  of  the  Foreign  Office.  I 
have  often  seen  him  in  Whitehall,  and, 
according  to  him,  the  Princess  Zichy  is 
not  an  invention.  He  says  she  is  very 
well  known,  that  she  tried  to  rob  him." 

The  servant  of  the  Foreign  Office 
looked  unhappily  at  the  Cabinet  Minis 
ter,  and  puffed  nervously  on  his  cigar. 

"It 's  true,  Sir  Andrew,  that  I  am  a 
149 


IN    THE    FOG 


Queen's  Messenger/'  he  said  appeal- 
ingly,  "  and  a  Russian  woman  once  did 
try  to  rob  a  Queen's  Messenger  in  a  rail 
way  carriage  —  only  it  did  not  happen 
to  me,  but  to  a  pal  of  mine.  The  only 
Russian  princess  I  ever  knew  called 
herself  Zabrisky.  You  may  have  seen 
her.  She  used  to  do  a  dive  from  the 
roof  of  the  Aquarium." 

Sir  Andrew,  with  a  snort  of  indigna 
tion,  fronted  the  young  Solicitor. 

"And  I  suppose  yours  was  a  cock- 
and-bull  story,  too,"  he  said.  "Of 
course,  it  must  have  been,  since  Lord 
Chetney  is  not  dead.  But  don't  tell 
me,"  he  protested,  "that  you  are  not 
Chudleigh's  son  either." 

"I'm  sorry,"  said  the  youngest 
member,  smiling  in  some  embarrass 
ment,  "  but  my  name  is  not  Chudleigh. 
I  assure  you,  though,  that  I  know  the 
family  very  well,  and  that  I  am  on  very 
good  terms  with  them." 
150 


IN    THE    FOG 


"You  should  be!"  exclaimed  the 
Baronet;  "and,  judging  from  the  lib 
erties  you  take  with  the  Chetneys,  you 
had  better  be  on  very  good  terms  with 
them,  too." 

The  young  man  leaned  back  and 
glanced  toward  the  servants  at  the  far 
end  of  the  room. 

"It  has  been  so  long  since  I  have 
been  in  the  Club/'  he  said,  "that  I 
doubt  if  even  the  waiters  remember 
me.  Perhaps  Joseph  may,"  he  added. 
"  Joseph !  "  he  called,  and  at  the  word 
a  servant  stepped  briskly  forward. 

The  young  man  pointed  to  the  stuffed 
head  of  a  great  lion  which  was  sus 
pended  above  the  fireplace. 

"  Joseph,"  he  said,  "  I  want  you  to 
tell  these  gentlemen  who  shot  that 
lion.  Who  presented  it  to  the  Grill?  " 

Joseph,  unused  to  acting  as  master 
of  ceremonies  to  members  of  the  Club, 
shifted  nervously  from  one  foot  to  the 

other. 

151 


1  N    THE    FOG 


"Why,  you  —  you  did,"  he  stam 
mered. 

"Of  course  I  did!  "  exclaimed  the 
young  man.  "I  mean,  what  is  the 
name  of  the  man  who  shot  it?  Tell  the 
gentlemen  who  I  am.  They  would  n't 
believe  me." 

"Who  you  are,  my  lord?"  said  Jo 
seph.  "  You  are  Lord  Edam's  son,  the 
Earl  of  Chetney." 

"  You  must  admit,"  said  Lord  Chet 
ney,  when  the  noise  had  died  away, 
"  that  I  couldn't  remain  dead  while  my 
little  brother  was  accused  of  murder. 
I  had  to  do  something.  Family  pride 
demanded  it.  Now,  Arthur,  as  the 
younger  brother,  can't  afford  to  be 
squeamish,  but  personally  I  should  hate 
to  have  a  brother  of  mine  hanged  for 
murder." 

"  You  certainly  showed  no  scruples 
against  hanging  me,"  said  the  Ameri 
can,  "  but  in  the  face  of  your  evidence  I 
152 


/  N    THE    FOG 


admit  my  guilt,  and  I  sentence  myself 
to  pay  the  full  penalty  of  the  law  as  we 
are  made  to  pay  it  in  my  own  country. 
The  order  of   this    court  is,"   he   an 
nounced,  "  that  Joseph  shall  bring  me 
a  wine-card,  and  that  I  sign  it  for  five 
bottles  of  the  Club's  best  champagne." 
"  Oh,  no!  "  protested  the  man  with 
the  pearl  stud,  "  it  is  not  for  you  to 
sign  it.     In  my  opinion  it  is  Sir  An 
drew  who  should  pay  the  costs.    It  is 
time  you  knew,"  he  said,  turning  to 
that    gentleman,   "that   unconsciously 
you  have  been  the  victim  of  what  I 
may  call  a  patriotic  conspiracy     These 
stories  have  had  a  more  serious  pur 
pose    than    merely   to   amuse.      They 
have  been  told  with  the  worthy  object 
of  detaining  you  from  the  House  of 
Commons.    I  must  explain  to  you,  that 
all  through  this  evening  I  have  had  a 
servant  waiting    in    Trafalgar  Square 
with  instructions  to  bring  me  word  as 
153 


IN    THE    FOG 


soon  as  the  light  over  the  House  of 
Commons  had  ceased  to  burn.  The 
light  is  now  out,  and  the  object  for 
which  we  plotted  is  attained." 

The  Baronet  glanced  keenly  at  the 
man  with  the  black  pearl,  and  then 
quickly  at  his  watch.  The  smile  dis 
appeared  from  his  lips,  and  his  face 
was  set  in  stern  and  forbidding  lines. 

"And  may  I  know/'  he  asked  icily, 
"  what  was  the  object  of  your  plot?  " 

"  A  most  worthy  one,"  the  other  re 
torted.  "  Our  object  was  to  keep  you 
from  advocating  the  expenditure  of 
many  millions  of  the  people's  money 
upon  more  battleships.  In  a  word,  we 
have  been  working  together  to  prevent 
you  from  passing  the  Navy  Increase 
Bill." 

Sir  Andrew's  face  bloomed  with  bril 
liant  color.  His  body  shook  with  sup 
pressed  emotion. 

"My  dear  sir!"  he  cried,  "you 
154 


1 '  What  was  the  object  of  your  plot  ?  " 


IN    THE    FOG 


should  spend  more  time  at  the  House 
and  less  at  your  Club.  The  Navy  Bill 
was  brought  up  on  its  third  reading  at 
eight  o'clock  this  evening.  I  spoke  for 
three  hours  in  its  favor.  My  only 
reason  for  wishing  to  return  again  to 
the  House  to-night  was  to  sup  on  the 
terrace  with  my  old  friend,  Admiral 
Simons;  for  my  work  at  the  House 
was  completed  five  hours  ago,  when 
the  Navy  Increase  Bill  was  passed  by 
an  overwhelming  majority." 

The  Baronet  rose  and  bowed.  "  I 
have  to  thank  you,  sir,"  he  said,  "  for  a 
most  interesting  evening." 

The  American  shoved  the  wine-card 
which  Joseph  had  given  him  toward 
the  gentleman  with  the  black  pearl. 

"  You  sign  it,"  he  said. 

THE  END. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
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